Salvation Belongs to the Lord

Good morning.

My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,

and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

If you are new or visiting with us, welcome.

We're glad that you're here.

And we're glad that you're here not because we are trying to fill seats,

but because we are following Jesus together as one community.

And as we follow Jesus together, we've become convinced that there's no one so good that they don't need God's grace,

and no one so bad that they can't have it.

Which means that when we come to look at God's word, which is what we're about to do,

we're convinced that God has something to say to everyone.

He has something to say to people who have been Christians their entire lives.

He has something to say to people who have been Christians for a short amount of time,

and maybe even people who would not consider themselves Christians,

who have doubts and questions and objections about Christianity.

God speaks to all of those things in his word, and so that's why we come to it together.

If you have been with us, you know that we're going through the book of Psalms,

and I've been telling you a variety of things about the book of Psalms.

One of the things I've told you every time is that it's the hymn book and the prayer book of the people of God in the Old Testament,

and so it was a guide for how to worship God,

and it's continued to be used by people in the New Testament because, of course, it's still relevant and helpful for us,

as everything in the Old Testament is.

And I've also told you it's hard to talk about the Psalms because there's not just one thing that I could say that would sum it all up.

It would be as if you took out a hymnal and said,

I want you to summarize this hymnal for me.

Well, it's full of songs, right?

And those songs talk about all sorts of different things.

And so what I'm going to do each week is tell you something,

a different kind of angle or facet of the diamond of the Psalms.

So last week I told you that the Psalms are poetry, and as poetry they make complicated things simple.

And that's what we looked at with Psalm 2.

To understand another element of the Psalms, I'm going to tell you a story.

So many of you know that I grew up on the East Coast right outside Washington, D.C.,

and I happened to be born to a mother who had a passion and a love for art history and art appreciation.

In fact, she loved art history and art appreciation so much, I'm going to brag on her a little bit,

that she was recruited at one point.

I grew up right outside Washington, D.C.

She was recruited at one point to be a docent for the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C.,

to be a volunteer who's trained over several years that would give tours and explain to people

the complexities and the love and the joy that comes from looking at famous artworks.

Now, it didn't work out at that time.

It wasn't the right time in our lives, and so that ultimately didn't happen.

But the point is that I went many, many times to the art gallery, sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly.

I have good memories.

I also have memories of having some meltdowns, times where I'd been looking at paintings for too long.

But it gave me a love and an appreciation and an eye as well to kind of walk into various art museums

and have some idea of what I'm looking at and what's going on.

And if you're someone who loves art and you know about art galleries, you know that when you go in,

there are some art galleries that are more important than others.

And you can tell the caliber of an art gallery by the value and the caliber of the paintings in it.

So if you're in an art gallery and there's a Leonardo da Vinci, you know this is a serious art gallery.

And size matters as well.

So in the National Gallery in D.C., they only have a small Leonardo da Vinci.

But if you go to the art museum in Paris, they have the Mona Lisa.

And so there's different gradations of value and relevance.

Now, if you don't know a lot about art but you know just a little bit,

you're probably familiar with a lot of Impressionist painters.

And there's one painter you'll probably recognize, and that's Monet.

Monet.

And Monet is famous for covering the same theme over and over again.

He's famous for painting water lilies in different shades and different colors.

In fact, it's estimated there are about 250 different paintings of water lilies.

He also decided at one point that he was going to paint this one specific cathedral in France,

and there are about 30 paintings of that cathedral.

Different times of day, different shades, different variations.

And if you go to a new art gallery, you're going to want to make sure you see the hits.

So when I moved to St. Louis, Missouri for seminary, there's a St. Louis art gallery, and it's free.

So, of course, I went multiple times, being trained well by my mother.

And in it, there's a Monet.

And you know what I didn't think?

I didn't think, man, I've seen the water lilies before.

That's so boring.

I'm going to make sure I don't visit that room in the art gallery.

No, I'm at the art gallery.

I want to see the highlights.

I want to see the greatest parts of the collection.

And the Monet in the St. Louis art gallery is almost 14 feet long.

And so, of course, that's one of the things I'm going to make sure I see over and over again.

And if I go to any other art gallery that I've never been to before,

I'm going to make sure I go and I look at the Monet.

Even if it's water lilies that I've seen before.

And so, no one in their right mind would say, I've seen this before.

I know this.

I'm just bored by it.

There's nothing new for me to see.

In fact, it's the repetition that partially makes this fascinating.

People will work to bring these collections together

so that you can look at this same cathedral over and over in different variations of different shades.

And so, I tell you this long story to say this.

The Psalms, if we want to understand them,

we have to know that they're a lot like paintings by Monet.

They will focus on the same themes over and over again,

but with different shades and different colors.

And so, one of those themes that we're going to see,

in fact, the theme, the shade that shows up more than any other,

the water lilies, if you will, of the Psalms are the Psalms of Lament.

And these are the Psalms that help us understand

how it is that we can have hope in the midst of difficulty.

What do we do when we see life's challenges and difficulties?

What do we do when we're in situations that feel overwhelming?

We looked at the big picture of the Psalms in Psalm 1 and 2.

Psalm 2, we saw the King is going to come back.

He's going to make everything right.

And yet, we're still waiting.

And everything is not right yet.

And so, as the Psalms give us Psalms of Lament over and over,

as they repeat these Psalms over and over,

they remind us of the importance of repetition,

that the Bible does not exist for us to simply extract

some kind of abstract theological truth,

but it's meant for us to live in it.

It's meant for us to come to it over and over again.

It's what we talked about in Psalm 1,

that there's a model that we run our hands along over and over

that we could learn it.

God is not as interested in efficiency as we are.

God is not an American.

And so, he gives us the same themes over and over.

He forces us to see them over and over because that's the way that we learn.

It's a slow process.

The Psalms sort of model the Christian life for us.

So, Psalm 1 and 2, we see the introduction.

Psalm 150, we see the end.

It ends in praise.

And everything between is all the agonies and joys of the Christian life.

And many of those are joys, but also many of them are agonies.

And so, that's why God provides us over and over again, Psalms of lament.

Psalms where the psalmist cries out and says,

this is the situation I'm in.

It feels overwhelming, and I need your help.

And it's interesting because we have the introduction in Psalm 1 and 2,

and the very first prayer in the Psalms,

because Psalms 1 and 2 are not prayers,

the first prayer is Psalm 3, which we're about to come to.

The very first prayer,

after we've been reminded that there are two ways to live,

and after we've been taught that the King is going to come back

and make everything right,

the first prayer is a prayer of lament.

Not a prayer of victory from Psalm 2,

but a prayer of crying out to God.

And so, it's with that that we're going to turn to Psalm 3.

You can follow along with me.

It's printed in your worship guide near the end.

You can follow along in your Bibles,

or you can also follow along on your phones.

But I would ask that you read with me,

because this is God's Word.

And God tells us that His Word is a lamp to our feet,

and a light to our path.

In other words, God has not left us alone to stumble in the dark,

but instead, He's given us His Word to show us the way to go.

And so, because of that, we're going to read now,

starting at verse 1.

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.

Verse 3.

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.

Verse 5.

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.

Verse 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.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Your blessing be on your people.

Please pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.

Dear Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word,

that You've given it to us.

That You know that we face challenging

and sometimes overwhelming situations in this life.

that as we're surprised by it, You're not.

And You have packed our bags.

You've given us what we need

to face those things when they come.

We ask that You would help us this morning,

that You would help us to understand

and see

and to believe and trust

everything that You've written for us in this psalm.

And we ask these things

in the name of our King, Jesus.

Amen.

When we talked about Psalm 2,

the psalm that comes before this,

I mentioned that this is a psalm that,

first of all,

talks about King David.

So it looks forward to Jesus,

but it is first about King David.

That's what the people of the Old Testament would have known.

He was the model king, the great king.

And there's a superscript to Psalm 3

that tells us that this comes from an event

in King David's life.

He was the greatest king of Israel.

He was the model that's pointed to

throughout the Old Testament

as a man after God's own heart.

And yet he was not a man without sin.

And he was not a man without difficulty and challenges.

And this psalm tells us that it comes

at a very specific time in David's life.

So David had periods of success

at the very beginning of his time as a king.

He was able to bring all of Israel under his control.

But there was a later time in his life

when he faced many troubles.

Now these troubles, if you're familiar with the story,

know, you know that they start with his affair with Bathsheba.

And it was at that point that things in his family

start to turn south.

And there comes one point where things get so bad

that David's son,

and this is in 2 Samuel chapters 15 and 16,

2 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

if you're interested in reading the story later,

David's son, who's named Absalom,

decides that he's going to revolt

and rebel against David.

And so he builds this coalition around him

of people who are going to join him.

He tells them his grievances against David.

He builds a group slowly by complaining

and talking about how good his kingship is going to be.

And then ultimately he revolts.

And so David has to, as the king of Israel,

leave his own city.

He has to flee from Jerusalem.

He's fleeing from Jerusalem for his life

with just a few people.

And rather than praising him when they see him,

people in other places curse him.

And so while David has been familiar with being chased,

remember before he was king,

Saul spent plenty of time chasing him.

It's now after so much victory

that he faces this great challenge,

not from some enemy from another country,

not from a political rival,

but from his own son.

And it's with that that he writes Psalm 3,

this Psalm of Lament.

If you were with us in December,

you know we looked at another Psalm of Lament.

We looked at Psalm 13,

and the flavor, the timbre,

the color of that psalm was slightly different.

That was a psalm for when we feel

that God has forgotten us and abandoned us.

And this psalm, Psalm 3,

it's not a psalm for when we feel like

God has abandoned us or forgotten us.

He doesn't say how long, O Lord,

like he does in Psalm 13.

But instead, it's a psalm

for an overwhelming situation,

where the psalmist knows

that he desperately needs God's intervention.

And so this psalm answers for us,

how do we function in an emergency?

How do we function when life's circumstances

are overwhelming

and seem to surround us from every side?

David tells us that he has many foes

that are rising against him.

And in verse 6,

thousands of people have surrounded him.

Psalm 2 tells us that God's going to deliver.

Psalm 3, we still wait for that deliverance.

Now, I just want to name up front,

most of us,

hopefully all of us,

do not have a son who's trying to kill us.

And most and many of the Israelites

who sang this song over and over again

in the Old Testament

did not have a son trying to kill them.

At the same time,

many Israelites,

God's people in the Old Testament,

and many Christians,

God's people in the New Testament,

have come to this psalm over and over again

for help and wisdom.

Even if we do not have a son trying to kill us,

God has given us this psalm as a guide

to help us know how to walk

when we face those kinds of situations.

And so,

one of the ways that we use the psalms

is we use them as templates.

This is a general prayer

that we can apply to specific situations.

It's a general prayer

that we use when we face situations,

maybe not as severe as David faced,

but situations that are overwhelming

where we feel under attack.

Maybe we're specifically under attack.

This is the kind of prayer that we could use.

Maybe you're a Christian of the early reign,

Christian Covenant Church in China,

and you're under attack.

Your leaders are being put in prison.

Maybe you've been accused

of something falsely at work,

and you're afraid you might lose your job

over something that's not true.

Maybe someone's brought

a frivolous lawsuit against you,

and you know that it's going to waste

enormous amounts of your time and your money.

Maybe you've been deployed overseas,

and someone is actually trying to kill you,

like David faces here.

Maybe you're like David,

and you have a family member

who is actively trying to destroy you.

Maybe it's not in your family.

Maybe outside of your family,

you have a personality

who has it out for you.

They long to see your end.

We can pray this prayer specifically

when we face situations

that we're under attack.

It's general enough, though,

if you follow along,

that we can apply it

to any situation

where we need faith

in the midst of overwhelming circumstances.

So maybe someone isn't attacking you.

Maybe you don't have enough money

to pay your bills.

And you look at Psalm 2,

and you say the king's coming back

to make everything right,

and yet that's not

what I'm experiencing right now.

Maybe you do have enough money

to pay your bills,

and you realize that doesn't matter

because the problems that you face

can't be solved with money.

Maybe your job situation

is getting worse and worse,

and you can't seem to find a way out.

Maybe you don't have a job,

and it feels like nothing

that you do is working.

Maybe no one in your family

is trying to destroy you,

but the needs that you are facing

are overwhelming.

The needs of your relatives,

the needs of your children,

it feels like the world

is closing in on you.

People inside of the church

and people outside of the church

face overwhelming circumstances.

And those of us

who are inside of the church

and those of us

who are outside of the church

have ways of dealing

with those circumstances,

and even for those of us

in the church,

often our way of dealing with them

has nothing to do with God.

And so this psalm,

Psalm 3,

is going to give us a template.

It's going to help us understand

how it is that we walk.

What do we do

if we want to have faith

and trust in God

in the midst of overwhelming circumstances?

First, we see in verses 1 and 2,

the psalmist just lays it out.

He just talks about

what is going on.

Oh 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.

He is honest about

bringing the situation to God.

And the psalms remind us

that God knows

that there are times

we're going to face circumstances

that feel very overwhelming.

God's not surprised by that.

He's not alarmed by that.

He's so aware of it

that he has given us psalms

for when those situations come.

God also knows

that there are times

when people will believe

that our faith in him is foolish.

That's what we see in verse 2.

Many are saying of my soul,

there is no salvation for him in God.

And perhaps, if we're honest,

at times we are tempted

to believe that our faith in God

is foolish.

And yet the psalmist refuses

fear on the one hand

and self-reliance on the other.

And instead,

he comes to God

in overwhelming circumstances.

And so what do we do

when we're facing

overwhelming circumstances

and we want

to face them with faith in God?

The first thing is simple.

We just come to God.

We don't stop talking.

We start talking.

We tell God

the situation that we're in.

We don't shut down,

but instead we talk to him.

We tell him

what's on our hearts,

what's going on in our lives.

Now this may sound too simple.

Right?

We're facing,

David's facing someone

trying to kill him.

Maybe you're facing someone

trying to destroy you

and the pastor has just told you.

The first thing I want you to do

is just tell God

what's going on.

Maybe you think,

that is so little

compared to the challenges

that I'm facing.

It has almost nothing

to do with what I need

to get done.

And if that's what you're thinking,

I want you to think about this.

This sounds too simple.

I recently spoke

with a friend of mine

and this friend

is currently actively involved

in a recovery program

for an addiction

that he's been facing.

And as I talked to him,

he was sharing

some of the things

that he's been learning

in this program

and one of the most profound

insights for him

was he said,

this is what's been

most helpful for me

is that I've learned

that the opposite

of addiction

is not sobriety.

The opposite of addiction

is connection.

The opposite of addiction

is not sobriety.

The opposite of addiction

is connection.

Now don't hear

what I'm not saying.

I'm not saying

if you struggle

with a serious addiction,

it's going to be solved

simply and easily

by beginning to pray.

What I am saying

is this.

When we live life

apart from our connection

with God,

it will show up

in our lives.

When we live life

apart from our connection

with God,

it will show up

in our lives.

We were not meant

to live lives

apart from God

and when we try,

we will have consequences

for it.

Maybe it's an addiction.

Maybe it's that we

numb ourselves

in that way.

Maybe it's something

that other people

find attractive.

Maybe we're extremely

competent,

we're extremely competent

because we know

how to control

and manage situations

and people

rather than trust God.

Maybe it's that

we've learned

to be stingy

and hoard resources

so that we'll never be

without the help

that we think

that we need.

Maybe it's controlling

people rather than

loving them.

Maybe it's scrolling

through image

after image

on social media,

not even thinking

or realizing

the images

that we're looking

through because

it's a way

to turn off

our minds.

The opposite

of addiction

is connection

and God

is telling us

here in his word

that when we face

these things

that feel like

they're too big

for us,

the first thing

he wants us

to do is come

and talk to him

to tell him

what it is

that's going on.

Verse 1,

O Lord,

how many are my foes?

Many are rising

against me.

And so we start

by talking to God.

Thankfully,

that's not where

we stop.

Verses 3 through 6

take us to the next step.

Not only do we begin

our conversation

with God,

but we have to

remind ourselves

over and over again

of what is true

about God

and his character

and also what's true

about his faithfulness

to us in the past.

So verse 3,

the psalmist

reminds himself

what's true

about God.

God is a shield.

God's the one

who protects him.

It's not his military

ability or power.

It's not his financial

resources.

That's his shield,

but it's God.

God's also the glory

and the lifter

of his head.

God is the one

who gives him victory.

God's the one

where he finds

his dignity

and his purpose

and his meaning.

So he reminds himself

of the truth

about God.

That what's true

about God

is more true

than his circumstances.

Second,

he lists the ways

that God has been

faithful to him

in the past.

We go back in time

in verses 4 and 5.

I cried aloud

to the Lord

and he answered me

from his holy hill.

In other words,

I have been in bad

situations before.

And if you know

the story of David,

you know he certainly has.

And when I was in

those bad situations,

you know who came

and helped me?

It was God

who came and helped me.

God showed up.

Verse 5,

I lay down and slept.

I awoke again

for the Lord

sustained me.

In other words,

there have been times

in the past

where without God

and his strength

and his help,

I would have been

sleepless.

Another way to think

about this

outside of the category

of addiction

would be to think

about it in sleeplessness.

What keeps you up

at night?

And if something

keeps you up at night,

what do you do

to go to sleep?

Maybe you don't.

Maybe you stay up

working through the night.

Maybe you're like

some friends of mine,

the only way

that you know

to fall asleep

is to smoke a bowl.

Maybe the only way

that you know

to fall asleep

is to congratulate

yourselves

for the ways

that you've succeeded

in the past

and to numb yourself

to the pain

of what you're facing.

The psalmist here,

though,

lays down and sleeps

for the Lord

sustained him.

In other words,

he's able to fall asleep

because he's reminding

himself of who God is

and what God has done

for him.

And therefore,

verse 6,

I will not be afraid

of many thousands

of people who have

set themselves against me

all around.

many of you know

that I was

out of town last week

and part of the week

I was in Lake George

with some friends

of mine from seminary.

We spent time together

to reconnect

and share our joys

and our heartbreaks

and also to pray

for each other

and have fun

with each other.

And one of the things

that we did

was we cooked together.

So we put together

a meal schedule

and each person

was responsible

for a meal.

and one of my friends

was responsible

for breakfast one morning

so he made French toast

and he decided

we were also going

to have whipped cream

with this French toast.

So we made up

this fancy whipped cream.

We put in,

you know,

vanilla extract

and some other things in it

but it wasn't already

whipped for us

and so he was sitting

there at the kitchen

just whipping over

and over and over.

If you know anything

about whipped cream,

it's easy to buy,

it's hard to make, right?

And if you want to make it,

you have to have

this diligence

and this persistence

moving back and forth

over and over

and over again.

Now,

I helped him a few times.

I offered that I would

be happy to jump in

and do a little whipping

for him.

I didn't want to do that

too much though

because I really wanted him

to be able to use his gifts.

So I let him do

most of the whipping.

But if you know anything

about whipping cream,

if you've ever done it,

you know that it is long

and excruciating

and hard.

And if you want

hard peaks,

you have to whip it

over and over again.

If we want

to have the hard peaks

of faith

and confidence

and trust

in God

in the midst

of trials,

then we have to

over and over again

remind ourselves

of who God is

and what he has done

for us in the past.

faith and hope

and confidence

in God

are not things

that happen magically.

They're things

that God gives to us

by his grace,

but he's given us

ways that we grow.

We call these

the means of grace.

So one of the reasons

that there are so many

water lilies

in the book of Psalms,

one of the reasons

we have so many

Psalms of lament

is that God wants us

over and over again

to remember

and retell

and recount

what he has done

in the past.

There are many Psalms

where the psalmist

talks about

the things

that God has done.

If we want

to face trials

with fate

in our lives,

then we have to

sit down

as families

and talk about

the ways

that God has delivered

us in the past.

We have to meditate

on the ways

God's provided

for us

in the past.

We have to remind

ourselves of Psalm 2

that God

is the great king.

And it's as we do

that over

and over again

that God

builds the kind

of faith

and hope

and trust

that we need

to be

verse 5 people.

People who are able

to lay down

and sleep

and then wake up

again because

God sustains them.

It's by remembering

God's faithfulness

over and over

and over again

that we get

the hard peaks

of trust

and hope.

And so it's Christians

are people of the past

who are always remembering

what God has done

for us.

We can look back

as a church

as we face

trials

and see what God

has done,

how he's provided

for us in the past,

how he's been faithful

to this congregation.

We can look back

as families.

And most importantly,

we look back

as a people of God

around the world.

We look back

to God's faithfulness

to the church

throughout history.

And most of all,

we look back

to God's great act

of faithfulness,

his faithfulness

to us

through Jesus.

While it's encouraging

and helpful

and important

for us to remember

what God has done

for us in our lives,

it is of most importance

to remember

what he did for us

before we were born,

which is that

he sent his son

as a man

who lived

as a real person

on this earth.

He lived a life

where he had many foes

and many people

were rising against him.

He didn't deserve it.

He was without sin.

He lived a perfect life.

And yet,

because of God's faithfulness,

because he's a shield

about us

and a lifter

of our head,

when Jesus went

to the cross,

he refused

to lift Jesus' head.

He abandoned

Jesus

so that he could

be with us.

The psalmist

didn't know this

when he wrote it.

David didn't know

exactly how God

was going to redeem

his people.

And so,

as we face trials,

first of all,

we probably face

a much less trial.

My guess is

you don't have

thousands of people

surrounding you.

You could.

And while we face

a less trial

than David faced,

we also face

a greater hope.

We have a greater thing

in the past

to remember,

which is that

for people

who have faith

in Christ,

Jesus has died

and risen

that we would have

life with him.

Now,

as I mentioned

last week,

faith is not

something that

everyone has.

Some people have

faith and some

people do not.

And faith has

three components

to it.

First,

it's knowledge.

It's knowing

the facts about

Jesus,

the fact that he

came and lived

a perfect life,

that he died

for our sins,

that he rose again

from the dead.

He was actually dead

and he was actually

alive.

But it's not just

knowledge.

Many people know

that,

but they don't

believe it.

And so faith

is also belief.

It's believing

that those things

are true,

that what God

tells us is true,

that we're sinners,

that we have no hope

outside of Jesus'

death for us,

that outside of his

death,

we are going to face

God's full and

final justice.

And then finally,

it's not just

knowledge and trust,

but it's also,

not knowledge and

belief,

but it's also trust

that we live our

lives as if these

things are true.

And so we live

our lives following

Jesus' commands,

not to earn

something from him,

but in gratitude

for the sacrifice

that he's made

for us.

So we look back,

we remind ourselves

of what's true,

we remind ourselves

of what God has

done in the past,

and more than

anything,

we remind ourselves

of his faithfulness

to us in Jesus.

This is the path

that God's given us

as we walk through

trials in this life.

We talk to him,

we cry out to him.

We remind ourselves

over and over again

of the truth.

And then we see

our last step

in verses 7 and 8,

we cry out to God

for help.

This is what the

psalmist does here,

Arise, O Lord,

save me, O my God,

verse 7,

for you strike all

my enemies on the

cheek,

you break the teeth

of the wicked.

It's not enough

to talk to God,

it's not enough

to list his faithfulness

to us,

but he longs for us,

he asks us,

he commands us

to pray to him

and to tell him

what we need

to ask for his help.

Whatever situation

we're in,

that we come to God

and we ask

for his deliverance,

God promises us

that prayer

changes things.

One of the things

that the psalms do

is they teach us

how to pray.

If you don't know

how to pray,

you can take a psalm

like Psalm 3

and you can make

it your own.

You can say,

O Lord,

how many are my foes?

My friend,

I thought was my friend,

is trying to destroy me.

Sometimes I think

it's foolish

to have faith in you

and sometimes

other people

think it's foolish too.

Verse 2.

Verse 3.

But you're the God

of the universe.

You're the Psalm 2 king

and you're coming back

one day

to make everything right.

I remember another time

in my life

when I faced

a circumstance,

not this exact one

but a similar one.

That other time,

maybe it was the time

I was without a job.

And I prayed to you

for months

and you worked

through your people

and you provided.

And I remember

another time

when I was having

difficulty sleeping.

But my trust

in you

was what was able

to get me through.

So,

verse 6,

I will not be afraid

of this friend

who's coming up

against me.

Finally,

verse 7,

I ask that you'd help me.

Vindicate me

in this situation.

Whether it means

revealing the truth

about the lies

that are being told.

Whether it means

taking this friend

and bringing the justice

that he needs

and deserves

if he's not willing

to repent.

And then finally,

verse 8,

salvation belongs

to the Lord.

In other words,

you are the one

who saves.

Not armies,

not people,

not bank accounts,

not competencies,

not degrees,

not resumes.

It's God

that has our salvation.

And so that's

what Psalm 3

teaches us.

It teaches us

how to pray.

It teaches us

how to face trials

in our lives

with faith.

Not with pie-in-the-sky faith,

but with the faith

that comes from

the hard work

of praying

and crying out to God.

Faith that comes

from the hard work

of reminding ourselves

over and over again

of how God's been

faithful in the past.

And faith that comes

from the hard work

of asking God

to intervene.

Now,

this is challenging

for many reasons.

One of the reasons

it's challenging

is that we're not

always sure

exactly how God

is going to answer.

So,

salvation belongs

to the Lord,

right?

Psalm 2,

God is coming back

to make everything right.

It's on the one hand.

On the other hand,

we do not experience

God's salvation

fully in this life.

In other words,

there are some things

in this life

that we are walking

through right now

that we want

God's deliverance from

that we will walk

with for the rest

of our lives.

There are some things

that we are walking

through right now

that we will walk

with through the rest

of our lives.

David experienced

physical salvation

in this specific situation.

He was saved

from Absalom.

If you know

the end of the story,

Absalom dies.

We will not experience

that same physical

deliverance

in every situation.

And this is part

of what's hard

about faith.

What do we do

with that?

What do we do

with Psalm 3

if the enemies

don't disappear?

What do we do

with Psalm 3

if we pray to God

and the situation

that we want

deliverance from

we are not

delivered from?

How do we have

faith then?

This is one

of the most

challenging questions

about being a Christian,

living life in this world.

There's lots of

clinical theological

answers I could give you.

But the most helpful

way of understanding

it comes in a story

from a friend of mine

that I come back to

as a way to help me

walk in this world

when I know

that God will not

always bring

the physical deliverance

that we long for.

So this friend of mine

he's I believe

in his mid-40s now

he was probably

maybe he's in his

yeah mid-40s

and he was

early to mid-40s

when this happened.

He was diagnosed

with cancer unexpectedly.

He felt like he was

very young for this

to happen.

And he had three kids.

He had a

seven-year-old daughter

and then he had

two twins who were four.

And he had the

kind of conversation

with his children

that no parent

wants to have.

He sat them down

and he felt that

he needed to

explain to them

in ways that they

could understand

what was going on

with their father.

And as a good

and faithful shepherd

of his family

he wanted to

help them

know how to pray.

And so as he

talked with his

seven-year-old

and his two

four-year-olds

he said

you can pray

to your heavenly

father

that he would

heal your earthly

father.

He wanted to

prepare them

for what might

come ahead

for their family.

You can pray

to your heavenly

father

about your earthly

father.

father.

And he told

them that they

should pray

that God

would heal

their earthly

father.

That he would

have many more

years with

them.

He also

reminded his

children that

God may not

answer their

prayer in the

way that they

wanted.

So he was

teaching them

to pray.

He was also

preparing them.

But he told

them God wants

you to come to

him with the

desires of your

heart because

he's your father.

He's your heavenly

father.

And he said

no matter what

God answers us

when we pray

for this as a

family.

It's ultimately

for our good

and he loves

us.

He's going to

provide for us

and he will

always be with

us.

And finally he

told them there

are things that

we can pray for

that we know

that God will

answer.

God wants us

to grow in

faith and grace

and love so we

as a family can

pray for that.

He wants us

to trust him

more.

So we can pray

for that knowing

that he will

cause us to

trust him more.

And we can pray

for the fruit of

the spirit because

God has made it

clear that that's

something that he

wants.

He wants that

fruit to be born

in our lives and

he's going to

grow us in those

ways.

And so I want

you to pray to

your heavenly

father about your

earthly father.

Your heavenly

father may not

answer your

prayer in the

way that you

want.

But whatever way

he answers it

is ultimately

for our good.

he loves us.

He's going to

continue to

provide for us

and he's with

us.

And he didn't

say this but he

could have added

and we can also

recount the ways

that God has been

faithful to our

family in the

past.

Brothers and

sisters, we

have a heavenly

father.

father.

When we face

difficult circumstances,

he wants us to

come to him with

our fears and

our doubts and

the desires of

our heart.

He wants us to

grow in our faith

and our grace and

our love and our

trust in him.

He wants us to

grow and no

matter what happens

we know that what

he does is

ultimately for our

good.

he loves us.

He will provide

it for us and

he is always with

us.

And so it's with

that hope and

that guarantee that

we can cry out to

God, telling him the

situations that we're

in, remembering his

faithfulness to us in

the past and asking

for his intervention

now because we know

what the psalmist

tells us in verse

eight.

Salvation belongs to

the Lord.

Lord, please pray

with me.

Dear Father in

heaven, we thank

you that we're your

children and you are

our Father and that

you care for us and

you love us.

We ask that you'd

grow our faith, that

you would help us to

be Psalm 3 people,

people who trust you

and cry out to you

no matter what.

We ask that you'd

grow us in those

ways.

And most of all, we

ask you these things

not because we earn

them or deserve them

but because salvation

belongs to you and

you've given it

through your son.

And so we ask these

things in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.