Faith and Trust in Adversity: Lessons from Psalm 3

The psalms actually show us that emotional enlightenment is not a modern phenomena it's instead an ancient practice and we see it through the Psalms as the Summers grapple with the troubles and the successes in their lives we see them pour out deep emotion through the words of these poems and I think sometimes those deep emotions and what they write have been mis absengerized into permanent nice and prova commentみたい what we call understood by people who don't understand maybe the literary form or don't understand from where they're written and so they've been misunderstood but also it can make us feel a bit uncomfortable sometimes we read things in the Psalms and we think should that really be in God's Word like should that have been allowed to creep in surely someone should have picked that up and got rid of it and we'll see an example of that today in Psalm 3 as well but I want to draw a key distinction here because in our modern world we talk about emotions and we kind of put forward that our emotions are valid above all else so the way we feel about something should be followed [00:08:19]

without restraint we're led to believe that our emotions should be like the guiding force of our lives that they should be the thing that leads our decision making that is the the key component of our identity but the psalms actually show us something very very different they show us that emotions are important and we should under seek to understand and express them and that we should be able to understand them but they should be expressed and understood within the context of our relationship with god and our knowledge of who he is so we see the psalmist not just simply follow their emotions but they bring them before a loving god they express them before god in a really raw honest and vulnerable way they acknowledge how they're feeling about the muck and the mess of life here on earth earth but they recognize that god is the ultimate authority in their life and that is such an important thing i see so many people and and particularly christians that are guided by their emotions above everything else that their emotions are the most important and significant thing that controls their life and that's not what the psalmists show us they recognize that their emotions should point them towards a place of trusting and relying on god and so this morning let's put some of those things into practice let's put them within the context of a psalm and so let's jump into psalm 3. [00:09:58]

if you've got your bibles there we're going to read through the whole psalm and then we'll work through it so psalm 3 says this a psalm of david regarding the time david fled from his son absalom says this oh lord i have so many enemies so many are against me so many are saying god will never rescue him but you oh lord are a shield around me you are my glory the one who holds my head high i cried to the lord and he answered me from his holy mountain i lay down and slept yet i awoke i yet i woke up in safety for the lord was watching over me i am not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surround me on every side you arise oh lord rescue me my god slap all my enemies in the face shatter the teeth of the wicked victory comes from you oh lord may you bless your people now if we started at psalm 1 and read through to psalm 3 we'll notice that this is the first time that we actually get this little line of context before we start reading the psalm and so we read here psalm 1 and read through to psalm 3 we'll notice that this is the first time that we actually get this heading that is straight from the hebrew text some of the headings that we find in our bibles we'll put there later to kind of help organize the text but this one is in the hebrew and it says to us that this is a psalm of david written about the time he fled from his son absalom [00:11:59]

then that once he's won the heart of the people he declares himself king and David then discovers that many of his friends and his counselors have turned their backs on him and they side with his son Absalom and so David worried that the conflict will see them killed and that the city will be destroyed he flees with a loyal few who go with him so knowing that helps us to understand why he starts this psalm saying oh lord I have so many enemies so many are against me so many are saying God will never rescue him there's this story that happens in those passages in second Samuel that as David and his men flee this man comes to meet them on the road and this man is from the house of Saul and he says to David David god has given the kingdom to absalom because of your sin because you're a murderer because you have blood on your hands god has turned against you and so we see then this emotion that david writes from his writing from this emotion of betrayal and grief but more than this is he writes from a place of fear he writes from a place of fear as the enemies have surrounded him and as they curse him he's afraid charles spurgeon the very famous preacher writes this if all the trials which come from heaven all the temptations which ascend from [00:14:59]

hell all the crosses which arise from earth could be mixed and pressed together they would not make a trial so terrible as that which is contained in this verse it is the most bitter of all afflictions to be led to fear that there is no help for us in God and perhaps this is David's greatest fear is he right is that what if what if God has turned his back on me what if God has turned against me what if the people condemning me are correct but instead of falling into this trap we see David turn and look at the blessings of God and this is what he says in verses 3 to 6 but you O Lord are a shield around me and you're my glory the one who holds my head high I cried out to the Lord and he answered me from his holy mountain I lay down and slept yet I woke in safety for the Lord was watching over me I'm not afraid of 10 000 enemies who surround me on every side I love what David says here because he says that you know people are out to get me but in verse 3 did you see that he starts verse 3 with but he talks about the reality that he's facing but he filters it through what he knows about God and he says [00:16:39]

but you O Lord are a shield love what he says not just in front of me not just beside me but you're a shield around me you're a shield around me now I was reflecting as I was reading it this week what is the the posture of someone who's fearful someone who's fearful is hunched over they're timid their their eyes are darting around they're often looking at the ground but David David's posture says God you're a shield around me [00:17:33]

David knew as a warrior what it was to have a shield and it was essential to have a shield in battle and he says that in my battle God is a shield around me not that I'm not in the fight I'm in the fight my enemies are still there there's still a attacking me but in god i have found full and complete protection and then he says this that you god are my glory david didn't just know about battles he knew about glory he'd been plucked from obscurity he'd been put into the palace he was king he had people look up to him because of his position of power and wealth and strength but with all of that stripped away what does he say he says god you are my glory you are the one who picks me up and lifts my head high and then he says i cried out to the lord i cried out [00:18:36]

to the lord and he answered me from his holy mountain now it's easy to skip over and just think that that's just you know some kind of point of um irrelevant you know it's just a nice saying but but it's not at all because we know that david been run out of the city and if you know anything about the geography of the area the city of jerusalem was on a hill and so he says as i look to the hill it's why we have psalms called psalms of ascent it's what the the jewish pilgrims would sing as they walked but he says absalom might have forced me out but he can't force god out of his rightful place he might have forced me out but he can't actually knock god off his throne he can't take god's place and then he says this remarkable thing because in a time where exhaustion fear you would think that sleep was impossible but david says because of the lord i slept i slept and not only did god enable me to sleep i woke up again he sustained me for a new day i wasn't killed in my sleep but god in his goodness he not only enabled me to rest but he's the source of my life he woke me up the next day and then he finishes with these verses it says arise o lord rescue me my god slap all my enemies in the face of the world [00:20:00]

And the word that's used here, it's a Hebrew military term. It speaks of going forward into battle, of going forward into battle. So David's saying, God is not just my defense, but he is my victory. And he'd seen this before. He'd seen God defend him, but he'd also seen God give him the victory. And that's what gives him confidence that God will do it again. [00:20:18]

And David uses two images here to show God's complete power over his enemies. He says, slap them in the face. Break their teeth. And that's one of those bits of the Psalms where we go, how is that in God's word? Like, how did we not edit that out? How didn't we make it feel a bit, you know, read a bit nicer? You know, if you put that in a work email, you'd be in big trouble. Like, you might have felt like, that's why, you know, they would say, you know, write the email at night, sleep on it, redo it the next day. But we have it there because Psalms are people's prayers to God. And so sometimes they contain the rawness and vulnerability of hurting people who are bringing their hurt before a loving God. [00:20:47]

And so David is looking at his moment there, that context that he's writing within, and he's looking ahead knowing that the ultimate victory comes from God, that God would save his people, that he would restore them to their rightful place, that he would come and rescue them. [00:22:59]

and so this morning as we reflect on this psalm maybe the Holy Spirit has already prompted something in you as we've read it together but David paints for us this really clear picture of a grappling with fear of grappling with fear of uncertainty and of betrayal and maybe that fear is something that has been in your life maybe it's something you're experiencing now or something you've experienced in the past and so often the fears in our lives end up becoming just taking a life of their own that we get to the point where we actually don't know what we're afraid about but we're just used to living on edge and this psalm paints for us four steps that we can take out of fear today four steps that when we know them believe them and apply them that we can step out of fear and take out of fear and take out of fear and take out of fear into the place where God wants us to be now I've given you I was feeling very creative this week I've given you four R's four R's so number one rest in God's refuge rest in God's refuge you see David's circumstances were completely overwhelming you know it would have been fair for him to run off to some far -off place and say God I don't want the throne anymore God I don't want the call of being king anymore God I didn't sign up for this or God why would you do this to me I've served you and now I turn around and my son has overthrown [00:25:03]

me and my people want me dead but David doesn't do that instead in the midst of this horrible overwhelming circumstance he looks to God and in the midst of it he experiences God as his shield and that offer is available to him and it's just as available to you today that you too can know that whatever you are facing that you invited to take refuge in God and that you can rest in that knowing that he offers us this peace that comes to us not just in times where things are calm but a peace that comes in times of chaos so number one rest in God's refuge number two remember God's sovereignty I think we struggle with this a lot and we've talked about it this morning about how we kind of position our emotions and our feelings above everything else but David chose to remember in a time where I wouldn't have blamed him if you forgot it but he chose to remember that God is still on his throne that Absalom might have run him off but he hadn't run off God the God's authority was still unshaken and I think some of us need to remind ourselves of that today God is still on his throne. I see a lot of fearful Christians and a lot of Christians who are afraid of circumstances or they're afraid even of governments or politics or policies or [00:26:42]

bosses and things like that and I'm not saying that that doesn't present a challenge for us but let's remind ourselves like David did that God is still on his throne that no matter what happens in our personal circumstances that God's sovereignty is unchangeable number three rejoice in God's rescue David's knowledge that God would rescue him wasn't based on some kind of wish or hope it wasn't based on anything other than his experience of God's faithfulness so even though the odds were stacked against him David could sleep peacefully because he knew that God was watching over him and that type of trust is really hard it is so much easier that when enemies surround us or our problems seem overwhelming to focus in on them you and not remember God's faithfulness to not remember that God has been faithful before and so he's going to be faithful again and that's what David reminded himself of that God was present that he was faithful and that he would rescue him and fourth rely on God's victory you know so often I'm a person who likes action I like to be doing things and what that means is that you know I like to be fixing problems and so when problems come they're just an opportunity to work even harder to make them you [00:28:03]

solved to make them resolved but David and perhaps you and me certainly at times reach a point where our own strength is just simply not enough and when the fight is too big when the challenges are too great when your personal struggles or maybe relationship challenges or maybe it's even a battle with a particular sin we are called to declare just as David did victory comes from the Lord not from myself not from my own ability or my own striving but victory comes from the Lord to rely that he has defeated the ultimate enemy he's defeated sin and death and so whatever you're facing today we can stand firm in knowing that the victory by the Lord is going to come and so we can stand firm in knowing that the victory by the Lord is going to come belongs to God that you don't have to make it happen yourself but he has secured it for you and we can look ahead in this eager anticipation to a time that's coming when we'll be free from the challenges when we'll be free from the enemies of this world and what an incredible reminder that is this morning that victory comes from the Lord you know one of the things that you know one of the things that you know one of the things that I was reflecting on this week, and I was going to include it at the start, but then I put it at the end. It's a very simple idea. [00:29:52]

That what we see in the Psalms, even the Psalms of lament, where things are going wrong, is that biblical faith is forward -looking. [00:30:01]