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(1) Sermon Script
Have you ever sinned, and reaped what you’ve sown? Have you ever done something, and had to bear the consequences? It is tough love, to make someone bear the punishment for what they have done. I’m sure that we all have. For we are all sinners.
So was King David. David was a sinner. And when David was suffering for his sins, he wrote this Psalm. Verse 1 gives us the historical setting of the Psalm.
3:1A melody of David. When he fled from before Absalom his son.
David’s flight from Absalom is recorded in 2 Samuel chapters 15 and 16. David had committed adultery and murder. So God promised to punish him. 2 Samuel chapter 12 verses 10-11:
“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.” Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household.”(NIV)
This curse is fulfilled in the story of Absalom’s rebellion. In fact, Israel is plunged into a civil war because of David’s sin.
Verse 6 suggests that this Psalm may well have been used as a morning prayer later in Israel's history. So, in the context of the first book of Psalms, Psalms 1 and 2 are the theological context. The man who shuns wickedness and delights in the law of the Lord is blessed. That’s Psalm 1. Psalm 2 tells us that the man is blessed who finds refuge in the Messiah, the Son of God. And Psalm 3 is a prayer for the morning for the sinner suffering under his sin. God will save him. Psalm 4 then is a prayer for the evening.
Verses 2 and 3 are a lament. David complains to God about the opposition he faces. And David takes this opposition personally:
3:2O Yahweh, how many are my foes, how many are rising up against me! 3:3Many are saying to my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”
Many, many, many have risen up against David as his enemies. Notice the three ‘manys’. And many believe God will not save him. “No salvation for him in God”, they say. That is public opinion. And they have some good grounds for this opinion, or so they think. After all, God has sent the disaster of Absalom because of David’s sin.
But ‘save’ and ‘salvation’ are the key words in this psalm (vv. 2, 8, 9). You could also translate it as ‘deliver’ or ‘deliverance’. The question is, “Will God save David?”
After all, David has brought this disaster on himself. He should never have committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed to cover it up. It is God who has sent this disaster as punishment for his sin. So why should God save him?
The situation looks pretty bad for David. But David still believes that God will save him. David indicates faith in God despite his sin.
3:4But you, Yahweh, are a shield about me, my glory and the one who lifts up my head.
David confesses his faith in God. First, Yahweh is a ‘shield’ about David. God is a protective fence or wall around David. That is why David is not afraid of the many around him. David has 360 degree protection from the threats surrounding him.
Second, Yahweh is David’s glory. He delights and rejoices in God.
Third, Yahweh is the one lifting David’s head. This is a beautiful image. It is one of restoration to an honoured position (Gen 40:13, cf. Pss 27:6; 110:7; Job 10:15).
Have you ever been so embarrassed that you cannot show your face? That you hide your face in your hands? You see it on TV with those people walking into and out of court. They cover their face with a jacket or with a sheet. They don’t want to be seen.
David has covered himself with shame. He committed adultery and murder. Now he has to flee Jerusalem. 2 Samuel chapter 15 verse 30 recounts for us David's walk of shame:
David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up.
But David looks to God to one day lift up his head again. David expects an answer from God’s holy mountain, Jerusalem. [1]
Are you embarrassed or ashamed about something you have done? Do what David did. Put your hope in God that one day, your shame will be put away. Trust God that one day God will lift up your head yet again.
And know that God sent Jesus to bear all our shame and disgrace. And on one day, in Jerusalem less than 2000 years ago, Jesus bore our disgrace and shame. Know that this same Jesus Christ is the one who will lift up your head. For we are going to a place where there is no more mourning, or crying or pain, even the pain of shame.
He intends to call on God to save him in verse 5. He will actually call on God to save him in verse 7. But here he says that he will pray and expects God to answer. Verse 5:
3:5I will cry out with my voice to Yahweh, and he will answer me from the mountain of his holiness.
Despite his sin, David still depends on God. He still has a relationship with God. Yahweh is David’s God. David is Yahweh’s Messiah.
Verse 6 tells us that David has been in his march of exile for at least a day and a night. For in verse 6 he praises God that God has kept him alive to see a new day. God’s mercies are new every morning. Verse 5:
3:6I laid down and slept. I awoke, for Yahweh sustains me.
Every day is a gift from God. David feels it because his life is threatened by his Son, Absalom. But it is no less true for us. The only reason we have another day today to enjoy, to serve God and others, and to go about our business, is because God has given it to us. We’ve lost sight of this a bit in our ‘you owe me’, self-sufficient culture. We think that God owes us another day all the time. But he doesn’t. Every day is his to give. And you know, until Jesus comes back, our days run out when God says so. But the Anglican Prayerbook gets it right, in the collect of the morning.
Lord our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for bringing us safely to this day: keep us by your mighty power, and grant that today we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but lead and govern us in all things, that we may always do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen (AAPB, Collect of the Morning, p 28)
This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. David does. And so should I and so should you.
David has enjoyed at least a night’s sleep during the crisis (perhaps 2 Samuel 16:14). So with the new day, and with new breath in his lungs, David draws himself together with new resolve. He takes a concrete pill, calls on God, and puts his trust in him. Verses 7 to 8:
3:7I do not fear the tens of thousands of people who are set around against me. 3:8Arise, Yahweh, save me, O my God! For you struck all my enemies on the jaw. You’ve shattered the teeth of the wicked.
In verse 4, David has already confessed that God is a shield around him. So David doesn’t fear the enemies gathering, though they be many, and tens of thousands.
But that doesn’t stop David praying. In verse 8, David calls on God to rise up. Just as many many many enemies have arisen against David, so David calls God to rise up.
And David calls on God to save him. Many in verse 2 were denying it. They were saying that God won’t save him. So David specifically calls on his God to show the many that they are wrong. God, indeed save me, despite what they are saying!
And friends, many say that Jesus Christ doesn’t save, or that Jesus Christ isn’t the only way, or that there is no God who can save you. Or that there is no need for salvation, because there’s no hell or devil or anything to be afraid of.
But be obnoxious, like David. Be a stubborn rebel against the many. Buck popular opinion. Call on God to prove them wrong. Call on God to save you. And God promises to save all who call on him. We have the saving name of Jesus on which to call, so use it.
The second part of verse 8 gives us the reason for David’s confident prayer. He has seen God’s action in the past. The last part of verse 7:
For you struck all my enemies on the jaw. You’ve shattered the teeth of the wicked.
God gave David military success, often with great violence. And David wants God to do it again. With their teeth cracked, his enemies won’t be biting him much longer. And God will crush their jaws and render them speechless. That will put an end to the slander of verse 3:
3:3Many are saying to my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”
And friends, you’ve seen God’s salvation worked through great violence: the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was where our Lord Jesus defeated sin and death and hell and the devil. Look back at God’s great work of salvation in the past. And since God has done the harder thing, of saving us while we were still sinners, he will also do the easier thing, of rescuing us from his own wrath and anger, now that Christ has reconciled us to God and God to us (Rom 5:8-9).
Verse 9 concludes the Psalm with a great fact about God and a great fact about God's people. Verse 9:
3:9Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be upon your people.
First, our God is a God who saves. That’s just the sort of God he is. He delivers and saves and redeems. Salvation is found in no one else but God. Salvation is found in no one else but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God become flesh. Our salvation is wholly from God, from first to last.
Second, Yahweh’s blessing is on his people. Rather than a prayer, this is a statement of fact. By so speaking, David is reframing the whole crisis. David is rethinking the discipline that God is making him and the nation endure. Despite appearances [2], the crisis cannot alter or change the fact that God has blessed and will bless his people.
Conclusion
Now, we can look at this Psalm a couple of ways as Christians. We can look at Psalm 3 as David speaking as a faithful member of God’s people. So we can identify with David. David has been promised ‘evil’ for his sin of adultery and murder and despising God’s word. Yet, David doesn’t give up hope or despair. Rather, he looks to God to save him.
Sometimes believers suffering for their sins? Let’s be realistic. Christians can and do become sick because of sexual sin by them (eg AIDs and other STDs), guilty parties to a divorce and the suffering that brings, overweight because of gluttony, suffering because of drunkardness or theft or (children when they are) disobedient to parents, short of money because of unwise purchasing choices, or investments motivated by greed.
But David gives us both an example and reasons for thinking that with God there is abundant forgiveness and mitigation of punishment, even for those who will endure great disciplining because of their sin.
It may be that some still say this: there is no salvation for you. Your sins are too great! Look at the word of God, it is against you.
But none of this means that there is no salvation in God. There is repentance and forgiveness, in the midst of bearing our shame. As minister, Ray Galea, was want to say, ‘We are only one confession and repentance away from giving God the glory’. No situation is beyond the transforming work of God.
And friends, we have a better confidence and better promises regarding our salvation. Thinking of our eternal salvation, we have the broadest possible promises. There’s ones like John 3:16, or Romans 10:9-10, that he who believes in Jesus as Lord Christ risen and reigning has eternal life. In this, God has bound himself to forgive us when we believe in Christ. That is a sure and certain promise. As John reminds us:
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1 NIV)
We no longer turn our face towards God’s holy mountain, Jerusalem. For Jesus is our temple, the place where God will answer us. God will answer us because Jesus died for us and now lives to intercede for us. Again, Paul says the same thing:
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Rom 8:33-34 NIV)
So my dear fellow sinners, pray confidently to God, for he is mighty to save, and he will do it.
Let’s pray
[1] While the setting of the psalm precedes Solomon’s temple, David looks to the Jerusalem from which he flees as Yahweh’s dwelling place. In this, he anticipates the prayer of his temple-building son (1 Kgs 8:46-53). He sees that Jerusalem is the place that YHWH has chosen (Deuteronomy 12; cf Gen 22:14; Deut 33:19; Ps2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 68:16; 87:1; 99:9). Jerusalem was also the place of coronation. It thus reminds David of his place as Messiah: Craigie & Tate, Psalms: WBC, 74
[2] And perhaps also in some tension with God’s own word that it is part of the ‘evil’ that YHWH will raise up against David.
(2) English Translation MT[LXX/EV]
3:1A psalm of David. When he fled from before the face of Absalom his son.
3:2O Yahweh, how many are my foes, how many are rising you against me! 3:3Many are saying about my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah.
3:4But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. 3:5I will cry out with my voice to Yahweh, and he will answer me from the mountain of his holiness.
3:6I laid down and slept. I awoke, for Yahweh sustains me. 3:7I do not fear the tens of thousands of people who are set around against me.
3:8Arise, Yahweh, save me, O my God! For you struck all my enemies on the jaw. You’ve shattered the teeth of the wicked. 3:9Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be upon your people. (My translation)