SUMMER IN THE PSALMS: Psalm 3

Chris McCurley: ⁓ July the eighth, two thousand twenty-four. It's a day that my granddaughter was born. A day that rocked my world. Those of you who have grandchildren know what I'm talking about. Children are amazing. Grandchildren are super amazing, right? Like my friend Bob Spencer likes to say, if I'd known grandchildren would have been this good, I would have had them first. I love I love my kids. And I love my grandchildren. And it's interesting that when children come into this world, they do so how? Screaming. Right? That's this primal cry of fear. I mean, you think about it, they have just left the only home they've ever known. Suddenly there's this intense pressure, and they're thrust into this world where somebody's wiping them down, somebody's suctioning their nose, and somebody's. Somebody's cutting their cord and they do it all while the baby is screaming. And so we come into this world with the first emotion we ever feel, which is crying. And depending on how you die, you leave this world, perhaps crying as well. And unfortunately, that first emotion we feel, we don't leave in the delivery room. We take it with us out into the world and we experience it. In a number of ways, a number of times throughout our lives. And that's what the Psalms teach us. Especially the Psalm that we're looking at this morning. Psalms teach us the language of prayer. And they teach us how to pray through our fears. You know, there's really two extremes when it comes to handling our emotions. We can suppress them or allow them to control us, but Psalms gives us a third option. Before you allow it to overtake you, pray through it. Lay it all out before God. Pray through your emotions in front of God. And it's an intentional processing that helps one to seek to understand the source of our fears, the source of our problems, our emotions. We sort through them and we find how they can relate to God. Because if we're going to be a follower of Jesus. If we're going to be a disciple and cultivate a relationship with him, then I must learn how to pray through my fears. And that's really what Psalm three is all about. Turn there if you would. Psalm three. I'm not gonna put it on the screen. Psalm three. Reads like this. 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. Salah. Remember, Salah means to pause, ponder what you just read. But you, O Lord, are 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. Salah. 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. 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. Imagine that you are forced into an exercise where you as a parent are standing on one end of a stage, your son or daughter is on the other end of it, there's about a hundred feet between you, and in between you are all these bear traps capable of inflicting five hundred pounds of pressure. And your son or daughter is blindfolded, and the only way they can make it across without being, you know, trapped and hurt is for you to give them instruction. And so you cry out to them, trust me, just listen to me. It's all going to be okay as you try to navigate them through the snares. And that's life in essence, isn't it? Is that there are trials and tribulations, there are obstacles in our way constantly. And yet we listen to the voice of the Father. We walk by faith, not by sight. And we follow the voice of the one who is there to protect us, to sustain us, and to lead us into his presence. The first thing that David does. Is draw attention to all the things he's freaked out about. There's a bunch of people trying to kill him, and obviously that would be scary. He brings it to God's attention, which is different than the way we pray, isn't it? We typically pray by assuming that God already knows what's going on in my life, and therefore we default to request mode. That's the majority of our prayers, right? Are requests. But notice what David does. He vomits it all out in front of God. He just lays it all out on the table. He doesn't assume that God knows anything. He lays it all out there and prays it in front of him. And instead of requesting, he's lamenting. And in fact you find that throughout the Psalms, especially with David's Psalms, that he doesn't default to request mode. In fact he defaults to lament. Now before we dig deeper into Psalm three, I want you to notice the heading above the Psalm. You may ⁓ Have a Bible version that says something like a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. If you don't know the backstory, you can go back and you can read 2 Samuel chapters 13 through 19 sometime, and you can see the connection between David's story concerning Absalom and the connection here to Psalm three. But in short, David is on the run because his son Absalom is trying to kill him. And Absalom has brought many men with him to accomplish this task. And so David, scared to death, turns to God and he prays through his fear by first identifying the source. Then he brings it to God's attention. And this prayer provides a model for us and how we can pray. In fact, it provides a model that you can pray. Have you ever prayed the Psalms? Because you can. And it might be good because I think as you'll see throughout this series, you'll find that their prayer is our prayer many times. Verses 1 2. 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. Salah. What's troubling David? Well, notice the words he uses. Many, many, many. Absalom's troops are many, and they're hot on David's heels. There's a whole bunch of them, but David's fear is. Is two-sided. In one sense, he's afraid physically that the men are going to catch up to him and kill him, but he's also afraid because of the propaganda that's being spread. And what propaganda is being spread about him? God's done with David. David's done for. God has abandoned him. There's no hope for David. David is through, he is finished, he's washed up. There is no salvation for him. And understand what this means. David's identity and status are under attack. You remember how David arrived on the scene? He went from zero to hero. He was a little shepherd boy who had no status, no significance, no importance. He wasn't the eldest in his family, even. Yet he rises to prominence because he's the only one that's willing to take on this giant Goliath. He topples him to the ground, he chops off his head, and he parades it through the town, and David achieves rock star status. I mean, everybody's in love with David. Long live King David. But as quickly as he went from zero to hero, he went back to zero, didn't he? Because of his sexual escapade with Bathsheba and then the subsequent killing of Uriah, David fell from grace. If Goliath was the mountaintop experience, then certainly the valley is David and Bathsheba. And so from that moment on, David's life begins to unravel, and the propaganda is just salt in the wound. The once chosen king is done for. Look at him now. I mean, think about what he once was, how great he was, how he used to rule and reign from the throne, and now look at him. He's nothing. He's insignificant. Who is David without the throne and the respect of the people? His value, his identity, his status are all being threatened, and there is this physical and psychological warfare that's going on here. What meaning has Does David's life have without the crown and without the throne when he's no longer king? Worse yet, if God has abandoned David, then his life is void of meaning, and Absalom and his men are correct. That God has left him and he has no hope. And notice how David prays through it. 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. Salah. The tone shifts, doesn't it? Do you notice that? Something happened inside this fearful and anxious man. His focus shifts from his circumstances to the character of God. And that's part of his processing. Identifying the source of his fear, fixing his eyes on God. And again, this is a model for us in our prayer life. David uses three Metaphors for who God is and what God has done for him. And the first thing he points to is that God is a shield about him. What do we know about shields? Well, they protect. If you take up a shield in the morning, what is the expectation? There's an assumption being made if you take up a shield, right? The assumption is that I'm going to need it. Now, a shield doesn't prevent you from being harmed, but it can protect you from being harmed. And David says, That's God for me. He's a shield about me. He's like a force field that protects me from my enemies. Even if death is the result, David says, God is my salvation. He's gonna be with me no matter what. And the question for all of us is, do you believe that? I mean, do you? Do you believe that God is going to be there for you no matter what? Because that's the thing about the Psalms. It's not hard to find ourselves in these words. In fact, I think that's what God intends. Have you ever been in David's sandals? Maybe you've never had an army trying to hunt you down and kill you, but without a doubt, most, if not all of us, have faced some sort of obstacle, snare, trial, or tribulation in life. And what's the assumption? When bad things happen to us. Well, God must be mad at me. God must not be listening to my prayer. God must have abandoned me. And what's the assumption that goes along with that assumption? Well, that God just wants my life to be comfortable and convenient. And now that it's not, he must not care about me anymore. But nowhere in the Bible does God ever promise that your life will be comfortable and convenient. In fact, He promises quite the opposite, right? Even Jesus said, If you follow me, you will have hardship. What God has promised Is to be there for you in the midst of your agony and your trials and tribulations when life's not comfortable or convenient. And not only that, but hardship may also be a good thing. It may be precisely what I need to strengthen my faith and develop my character. You may find this crazy for me to say, but cancer may be the best thing that's ever happened to me. I have prayed and prayed. That I can get closer to God, that I can deepen that connection, and I just didn't know how to get there. And if this does it, then hallelujah, praise Jehovah, right? Suffering may be the best thing for you, it may be the tool that you need to draw closer to God. Tragedy may draw us closer to God than ever before. I mean, think of it this way: imagine that I have all the ingredients to make a chocolate cake. So flour. Eggs, butter, ⁓ sugar, and I hand them out to you. I say, Let's all enjoy a delicious chocolate cake. Robin, I give the eggs, to James I'm gonna give the flour, to Peggy I'm gonna give the sugar, to David, I'm gonna give what I leave out the butter. And I say, Let's dig in. Let's all eat this delicious chocolate cake. And you would look at me like I'm nuts, right? Why? Well, because we don't have a chocolate cake. We have the ingredients for a chocolate cake. And quite honestly, besides the sugar, ⁓ these ingredients are not great on their own. What we need is to combine all the ingredients, mix them together in a bowl in just the right amounts, put them in the oven for just the right right amount of time, and we get a delicious chocolate cake. But it's not until you mix all the ingredients together, and it's the same way in in our lives when it comes to hardship and tribulation. God can take those ingredients that to us may seemingly have no purpose and no use, and mix them all together and create something beautiful in our lives. I mean, that's what Paul was talking about in Romans eight twenty eight. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Paul's not saying that everything that happens to you is good. You just can't see it. Well, he's saying that God can take those bad things and he can mix them all together and he can produce something good in your life. In other words, everything works together to accomplish God's good goal. When Christians are faithful to him, he works all circumstances together for their spiritual good. And that doesn't mean that Christians will be spared heartache or heartbreak. It means that God will use them for the betterment of his children. Sometimes God rescues us from hardship. Sometimes he doesn't. And sometimes he uses that hardship as a tool to draw us closer to Him and to make us better. And David recognizes that God is a God that can do that. And he He seeks God and God's protection. God is my shield about me, he says. Protecting the most vital part of David. And what is the most vital part of David that needs protecting? That's what the next two metaphors tell us. Notice David says, You are my glory. Glory is a very interesting word, both in the Hebrew and the Greek. In the Hebrew, it's kovod, and it means wait. Importance, status, significance, majesty. We use similar language when we say things like this is a weighty matter, or or we say something like the gravity of the situation. When talking about Kvod, we're talking about importance or status. And David had Kovod. Listen to this. First Chronicles 26, 26, and following. Thus David, the son of Jesse, reigned over all Israel. The time that he reigned over Israel was 40 years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and 33 years in Jerusalem. Then he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and Kovod. David's Kvod. His status, his significance was about going from a little shepherd boy to the ruler of Israel. This little shepherd boy who had no significance, no importance, had Kvod as he ruled and reigned. But now, now his glory is gone. No more Kvod. His status as a father, a nation builder, a king, his moral integrity have all been shattered. But it also has served as a wake up call because now David recognizes that none of the Kvod was his to begin with. He had been finding his glory in himself. You ever been there? Where you stick your chest out and you think, I did this. This is all me. That was David. But now his Kvod is shattered, and it's a good thing because now he recognizes that his Kvod, any of it that he had, was all in God. You are my glory. You are my glory, God. And I recognize that now. You are a shield about me, and you are my Kvod. He was his own Kvod, and that was the reason for his downfall. The reason that he fell from grace and went from a hero to a zero was because. He placed all the glory on himself. He took it on himself. Everything he once identified about himself has been lost and it's caused him to recognize that it wasn't about him to begin with. See, David's fear is a symptom. It's not the root illness. The bigger problem is misplaced Kvod. So he prays through his hardship. He owns his error. He recalibrates his glory. He is no longer his own Kvod. He tried that, it didn't work. And the only reason he had any importance or significance or status whatsoever was because of God and his glory. So he says, You are my cavod God. You are my glory. And the final descriptor he uses is he says, and you are the lifter of my head. You understand this concept probably even before I say something about it. When I was coaching, many times we were an underdog. Many times we are a massive underdog. And we would go into those games and I would know as a coach kind of the possibility we had of winning. But that didn't stop me from trying to get the kids to drink the Kool-Aid and think that they could run through a wall and they could, you know, they could defeat anybody, no matter how bad they were and how good the other team was. And there were times where we pulled the upset, not many. There were times where we played really hard and we just lost. We gave it everything we had. The scoreboard just didn't reflect it. And those times I would come into the dressing room. And I would tell the kids, we're gonna walk out of here with our heads held high. We have nothing to be ashamed of. You hear all the time about sports, there's no such thing as a moral victory, baloney. There's definitely moral victories. And when it was a moral victory, I would say to the kids, we're gonna walk out of here with our chin up because we did everything we could. We played our hearts out, it just didn't work out on the scoreboard. And that's what David is talking about here. God is lifting his head. He's been through it. He's going through it right now. Times are tough. But he's saying, God is lifting my head. He's pulling my chin up and saying, It's going to be okay, David. God is with me. He is for me. And so I can hold my head high. And you wonder, how can he be so sure that God is his shield, that God is his glory, that God is the lifter of his head? How can he be so sure? Notice, I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Cried aloud to the Lord and he answered me from his holy hill. David cried out to God and he answered. And look where God answered him from his holy hill, which is a reference to Mount Zion. Holy hill and Mount Zion are found multiple times throughout the Psalms. And it's a reference to Jerusalem, the city that David built, Israel's capital, capital. And in that city, on that hill, that holy hill was what? Temple. And David lifts his head and he looks towards the holy hill and he sees that temple and he has the confidence that God is his salvation. Why? What happened in the temple? Atonement, sacrifice would cover his sins. And David looks at the Holy Hill. He looks at the temple and he sees the sacrifice and he knows that God's got this and he knows he can have confidence. He's looking at the temple and the holy hill and what goes on there. And wouldn't it be nice if there was some sort of spiritual connection for us? I mean, wouldn't it be great if we could read this and go, ⁓ yeah, you know, that really applies to us too. Being sarcastic, right? Because David David is looking at that holy hill and we are too. We are on the other side of the cross. David was praying and looking toward the temple on the holy hill. We are praying and looking towards that same hill, but we're looking towards a cross and what happened there, right? The sacrifice and what that means for us. And because we look to the holy hill, the same one that David looked to, and because we see not the temple but the cross, we have the same confidence as David. Because we know that atonement happened there, that there was a sacrifice that covers us, and we can pray the same prayer as followers of Jesus that David prays here. Keep reading. I lay down and I slept. Really? You've got an army trying to hunt you down and kill you, and you can lay down and sleep? How can you sleep at a time like this, David? I woke again. For the Lord sustained me. David is leaving it in God's hands. Because that's all he can do, right? And he rests in God's glory and grace. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Well, that's a very different attitude than what he had to start the prayer, right? David has reached the place of no matter what, no matter what happens, I know I'm in good hands. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek, you break the teeth of the wicked. Notice how David gets emotional again. Save me, O my God. Though David has made peace with his circumstances and his God, it doesn't cancel out how it feels how he feels. He's still emotional. There's still an enemy that's bearing down on him. And David wants what? He wants justice. And we're tempted to say, now, David, calm down. You can't pray this way. This is not a way to pray. God doesn't like it when you pray that way. But God doesn't seem to mind it. I mean, David's laying it all out there. He's just being honest. This is the way I thank God. And God doesn't seem to mind that. David's emotions are raw. Plus, there are some things that are just worth being angry about. I mean, what's better? Act like it's not going on and suppress it. God already knows it anyway. Just lay it out before him. David commits his enemies to God and he prays for justice, and apparently God is okay with that. Because do you know how the rest of this story plays out? Do you know what happens in the story between David and Absalom? And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it and told Joab, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. Joab said to the man who told him, What you saw or what you saw him, ⁓ why then did you not strike him there? To the ground. I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt. But the man said to Joab, Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king's son, for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, for my sake protect the young man Absalom. On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life, and there is nothing hidden from the king, then you yourself would have stood aloof. Joab said, I will not waste time like this with you. And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak. And ten young men, Joab's armor bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him. So David didn't kill Absalom. He had nothing to do with his death. David handed it over to God. And then look at verse 8. Salvation belongs to the Lord. You, your blessing, be on your people. Say law. So Psalm three ends with David praising his God because that's what you do when God answers your prayer. In fact, that's what you do when God doesn't answer your prayer in the way that you would like. Because you understand that He is the Kvod. He is your glory. He is the shield about you. He is the lifter of your head. He knows more than you do. So therefore, he is your. Your confidence. Like an 84-year-old woman who was in her house late one night and she heard some rustling and and she was afraid that it was a burglar, but she didn't like to bother her kids. It was late at night. She lived by herself. So she went to bed. The next morning she woke up, her son came by to check on her, and she told her son about the what she thought was a burglar. And the son was incensed. Why didn't you call me? You know that, Mom. I I would come over here and help you. He said, What did you do? And she said, I just nailed the closet door shut and went to bed. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do that? Just nail the door shut and go to bed and not think about it anymore. Unfortunately, our fears don't work that way. I struggle, you struggle. We know what the Bible says. Do not fear, do not fear. Yet we fear. Do not worry, yet we're anxious. Somebody tells you, do not worry, but I am worried. Well, stop worrying because. Well I I can't stop worrying. Well you're going to hell because you're you're worrying and now I feel you know, I'm worried about that. I I don't think that these words are here do not fear or do not worry because God is condemning us. I mean He made us with emotion. But I think what David teaches us is that there's a way. There's a way for your faith to override your fear. There's a way to pray that may not give you a worry-free or fear-free existence, but it can help you to work through it and process it and get past it. What would it look like for you to pray this prayer? How about praying this prayer? You can pray the Psalms, in fact, probably should from time to time. What it would it look like if you prayed this prayer? What do you fear? What is the root of that fear? Identify it, turn it over to God. And I think what you'll find is that your fear is a result of misplaced glory. I know that has been my experience too many times to count. When I'm nervous when I'm worried, when I'm overly anxious or fearful about something, it turns out that it was misplaced glory. I was trying to rely on myself or my circumstances or somebody else when I had to realize that the only glory I had was because of God. He is my covod. And I want you to ponder something this week. I want you to ponder this. What is your cavode? Hopefully it's God. Your shield, your glory, and the lifter of your head. My guess is there's somebody sitting out here this morning that's dealing with some sort of trial or tribulation. Maybe you need us to pray with you as well. Certainly. Certainly, we want to do that. Maybe you're living a life that is less than abundant because you're trying to rely on your own cabod and you haven't put on Christ in baptism to recognize that the only salvation you have is in Him and therefore He is your glory, your confidence. Have you looked to His holy hill? How significant is the sacrifice for you? Maybe you need to contact the blood of Christ this morning. Maybe, maybe you need prayer. Maybe you need to learn more about what it means to be a disciple. Certainly we can set that up. I want to see all of you in heaven. So what do you got to do to get there? Come as we stand and as we sing.

2 Samuel 13 · chapter mention