Sermon Cloud

Scripture Reading; Romans 8:26-39

Well, today we begin something new.

As I prayed about what I would like to share with you next, I went back the the Psalms.

• I frequently retreat to the Psalms between larger studies

1. Because it is a book in the Bible that can easily be preached in single messages or shorter series due to the fact that the chapters are not really chapters at all but separate songs and prayers of different people at different times and in different situations.

2. Because I just love the Psalms and their character as songs and prayers of God's people at different times and in different situations.

• And so it is easy to find some that speak to me in whatever situation I find myself.

• Today I want to look at Psalm 3 because I think it will yet again affirm that truths that we saw at the end of John's Gospel and show the continuity of God's word throughout.

• Remember that we closed out John's Gospel with the idea that God saves and forgives sinners and in His love He He restores them.

Psalms 3:1 A Psalm of David When He Fled from Absalom His Son. LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. (2) Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah (3) But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. (4) I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah (5) I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. (6) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around. (7) Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. (8) Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah

• First of all let's get some background here.

• How many of you are familiar with the life of Kind David?

• 1 Samuel 16 – 1 Kings 2 OVERVIEW

Psalms 3:1 A Psalm of David When He Fled from Absalom His Son.

• The psalm begins with an inscription that tells the the person who wrote it and his circumstances.

• A time of the rebellion of his son....

• And more

Psalm 3:1b LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. (2) Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah

• Not only was David's son in rebellion, but remember that David is King.

• This rebellion is also treason

• It is military conquest.

• But as God's man, the King of His special people, what can trouble him?

• I guess that it is not so that God's people are free from trouble in this life.

• And so what is the source of his trouble?

• What causes a king to flee before his treacherous son?

• Why does this happen to the man after God's own heart?

• Our man of God also has a past. A life that is marked by sin.

• Though he was a man of impeccable character for most of his life.

• Though he honored God so much that he would not kill His king though he had been anointed as his replacement and that king was living in rebellion against God.

• Yet in all of His dignity and respect as time came and he attained the throne eventually he was taken with yet another woman.

• He already had several!

• And in his lust he was taken to the bottom of that pit of sin!

• I am sure that you know of Bathsheba.

• 2 Samuel 11

• As a result, Nathan tells David some bad new.

• 2 Samuel 12:7-14 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. (8) I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! (9) Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. (10) Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' (11) Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. (12) For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.' " (13) So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. (14) However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die."

• And so this trouble that David is in is a direct result of his own sin and rebellion against God.

• Others think that he has gone too far in removing the family of Saul as he assumed the throne, on the contrary, he was quite gracious to his surviving relatives

• You may remember that as David has several children from several different wives that Absalom had a sister named Tamar and that Amnon, a half brother was in love with her and tricked her to get her into his room where he raped her and so Absalom killed him and fled for a couple of years.

• David sent and brought him back but would not go to him and see him face to face.

• Absolam went through Israel and stole the hearts of the people and now he has chased David and several others with him from Jerusalem out into the wilderness.

• So when David says to the Lord, Psalm 3:1b LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. (2) Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah

• This is a very real situation.

• Many believe because of his past that God has abandoned him.

• Psalm 3:2 Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah

• Right about here I think it would be easy to just throw in the towel and say, “I blew it!”

• But what is David's attitude in this situation?

Psalm 3:3 But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. (4) I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

• David says to the Lord,

• You are a shield; You protect me from my enemies.

• My glory; Not a kingdom or a crown.

• The One who lifts up my head; The one who restores and brings up from the pit.

• And so he cries out to the Lord and he know God was listening.

• What about you?

• What is the situation of your own distress?

• When you are in the midst of a trial what is your solution?

• What is your attitude?

Psalm 3:5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. (6) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.

• David's confidence in the Lord was so great that as he fled Jerusalem and went up the Mount of Olives mourning, and was meat by traitors and enemies who deceived and mocked him, and 2 Samuel 16 tells us that at the moment Absalom was in Jerusalem taking counsel as to how to overthrow his father.

• Yet David trusts God so much that his response is Psalm 3:5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. (6) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.

   

Psalm 3:7 Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. (8) Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah

• And so David, a sinful man, yet a man after God's own heart is receiving the wages of his sin.

• Temporal consequences for the choices that he has made.

• Yet God has made him a promise back in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. (13) He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (14) I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. (15) But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. (16) And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever." ' "

• 2 Samuel 7:25 "Now, O LORD God, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as You have said. (26) So let Your name be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is the God over Israel.' And let the house of Your servant David be established before You. (27) For You, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You. (28) "And now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have promised this goodness to Your servant.

So David's confidence came from the faithfulness of God's promise.

• We also have promises from God and need to trust in him in the same way.

• As we spoke about Jesus and His death and resurrection and the promise from Romans 10:13 For "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED."

• And also that if we have believed the Gospel that Romans 8:28-32 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (31) What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (32) He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

• Our promise is one that is not only temporal, who is reigning on the throne after us, but eternal, where and with Whom we will spend eternity.

• It is a promise to forgive sin and restore us to Himself.

• We know the end!

• Just as David did we can have confidence.

• Confidence to lay down and sleep in the midst of calamity. As Jesus Himself did on the boat that was at sea in a storm.

• This is the confidence that we can have as we are in a covenant with the Creator of the universe.

• Do you have that confidence.