Wednesday Night, August 12, 2020 PM

All right, guys, good evening. Good to see everybody. We'll go ahead and get started. Good to see everybody on this evening, Wednesday night. Let's go ahead and open up with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for the blessings you give us every day. To have the sun rise up every morning and have it set in the evening every day. We thank you for providing us with food, with shelter, with clothing, and we thank you for the greatest blessing of all, Jesus Christ.

And tonight, Lord, we ask that we would pray our hearts to worship you and to set our eyes upon Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

I'm gonna sing a rousing hymn. How's that sound? Would you turn to 495? Title of this is Heaven Came Down. Now, this is not one you sing with your head in your lap and a weight on your shoulders, but you gotta sing it from the heart.

It's, it's.

Wonderful, wonderful day Day I will never forget. After I'd wandered in darkness away Jesus my Savior I met. Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend. He met the need of my heart Shattered the spelling with joy I am telling He made all the darkness depart.

Heaven came down and filled my soul Because the Savior made my sins were washed away It was turned to heaven came down and glory filled my soul. From above into God's family divine Justified fully through Calvary's love Oh, what a standing is mine.

And the transaction so quickly was made. As a sinner I came Took of the offered of grace he did proffer. He saved me oh praise his dear name. When at the cross the Savior made me whole At the cross the Savior made me whole.

Sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul A hope that will surely passing of time. Future in heaven for sure there in those mansions sublime And it's because of that wonderful day When at the cross I believe Riches eternal and blessings supernal From his precious hand I received Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.

When at the cross the Savior made me whole My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you, Lisa.

I'm sure you've already deduced by now tonight's gonna be a little different.

So...

Thank you, Duwayne. So Michael had some family stuff to take care of today. He had to faithfully care and lead his family like he always does. So he asked me to fill in tonight and to walk through Psalm 3.

The Trouble David Faced in Psalm 3

And that's what we'll be tonight in Psalm 3. This is a very encouraging psalm, just like several of them throughout the Book of Psalms. It's a psalm that presents God as a very present help to David and to the people of God.

It's a psalm that teaches us even in the dark times, even in dire times, the Lord preserves his saints. The Lord sustains them. So let's go ahead and read it and see what it has to say. This is the Word of God.

Lord, how they have increased who trouble me. Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, There is no help for him in God.

Selah.

But you, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his holy hill.

Selah.

I lay down and slept. I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 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. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people.

Selah.

Here we have the Word of God. Here we have Psalm 3. And so, you can probably tell from my pronunciation of Selah, I've heard different ways to say that, and I'm not Pastor Michael. You're not getting the name brand or great value even.

You're getting best choice. So, it's going to be a lot of fun tonight, but I've been learning a lot about there's different styles to present the Word of God, but the truth of the Word of God stays the same.

And so, it's going to be quite a blessing to read through the Psalm and to look at it and see the truths presented in it. And verses 1 and 2 presents the problem. What was the Psalmist's problem? What was David's problem here?

The title of the Psalm is, Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son. And in verse 1, it starts out, Lord, how they have increased who trouble me. Many are they who rise up against me. It's been an encouragement to go through the book of Samuel during our readings and Sunday nights.

It's been really cool to go back and read some of the stories of David and how he's gone through a lot of changes in his life. He's went from being a shepherd boy to being the anointed of the Lord to going through several interactions with Saul, to put it lightly, to eventually becoming king of Israel and to eventually go through some of his own sins that he committed against Bathsheba, against her husband, and against the Lord himself.

And how he failed to execute justice, both as a king and as a father. And now, there's another change. His son, Absalom, flesh and blood, has risen against David, revolted against him, gathered allies with him against David, driven David out of Jerusalem.

David's on the run now. He's gone through a lot of changes, a lot of changes indeed. A lot of people have risen up against him. He not only has to contend with people outside of Israel, but now he has to contend with people inside of Israel.

And his troubles increase, and these are certainly dark times indeed. And verse 1 presents us with the enemy's strength, the enemy's number. There's a lot. There's many. Verse 2, we see the enemy's claim.

What do they have to say about David? What do they have to say about his situation? Verse 2 says, As many are they who say of me, there is no help for him in God. There is no help for him in God. Isn't this the claim for a lot of enemies against God and his people?

There is no help for you in God. He's not going to help you here. There's no strength for him. This is really resounded throughout time against the people of God throughout the ages and is even here today.

There's a lot of people who say, there is no help for you in God, talking to the church, talking to the people of God. And this might be a total rejection of God. This might be them saying, there is no God at all, so you won't have help here.

This might be them breaking the second commandment and saying, God doesn't help his own people. He helps us, the real people of God. Today we see this when people who hold to the truth of God's word who say, justification by faith alone in Christ alone.

Grace is only through Jesus Christ. But a lot of people say, there's no help for you in God. That's not how salvation works. That's not how God works. They take the Lord and they put him in a box and make him into something he's not.

Here David is in a very bad situation. He's in a very dark time. And that's quite an insult to bring to the people of God to say, there's no help for you in God. There's no help for the person who gives you your identity, who gives you meaning in life.

And that's a hard blow. But, verse three and four, we see the help from God. We see a strong help from God. We see David's response to this claim. Verse three it says, but you, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the one who lifts up my head.

It's very interesting to note Charles Spurgeon said of the word shield, it indicates that it's not just protection on one side, as if you were to take up a shield and protect you from arrows in battle, swords in battle, anything like that.

It's really protection from all sides. Above you, beneath you, around you, to your right hand, to your left. All sides, God protects David. The Lord is David's glory. David has gone through a lot of changes, as mentioned before, and he's experienced and taken upon himself a lot of honor as being the anointed of God, being king of Israel.

But now in this situation, people might think he's lost a lot of honor. He's on the run now. He might have lost a lot of his kingdom. A lot of his glory might be discarded now. But he realizes during this time that his true glory comes from God.

God is the one who lifts up his head. It's pretty much a universal sign that when you see someone walking around with their head down, discouragement, despair, dark times for that person. But the Lord is the one who comes down to David and lifts up his head, an encouragement for David in this dark time, preserving him through a very bad situation.

Verse 4 says,.

I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his holy hill. This is such a blessed truth to be able to cry to the Lord, and he hears you. He hears the humble. He hears his people. This is truly a beautiful thing.

And the verse that comes to mind when I read this is, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And we see here that David is humbly coming to the Lord, is humbly crying out to him and saying, Lord, this is my situation.

I am by no means guiltless, but please help me. And God is there to be help to him. It's certainly a beautiful thing. And then verse 5 and 6, we see that God is a sustaining help for David during this time.

Verse 5 says, I lie down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustained me. A couple nights back, I had trouble sleeping, and I was able to observe different parts of my house during this time. 2 a .m., you're walking around, and you're like, that's a pretty nice ceiling.

Good structure support. Yeah, that's nice. Nights without sleep sometimes can be a real trial. It can be really difficult going through those times. And when we experience dark times as God's people, we can feel discouraged.

We can put our head down, and we can lose a lack of sleep. It's hard to sleep when you're going through a dark time, a tough situation. Through very dire times. But David puts his trust in the Lord and knows that the Lord will sustain him during this time, will be a help to him.

And he's able to sleep. He's able to sleep. Sometimes your mind goes a million miles per hour, per second, per minute. Whatever the case, you get my meaning. There's that best choice coming through. But there can be a lot of worries coming up to your mind and just on your thoughts.

But the Lord is good, and the fear of the Lord gives way to all other fears. When you fear God, all other fears tend to drift away. For the fear of the God is the most blessed fear, and it helps you sleep.

For the Lord sustained David. In verse 6, moving on,.

It says,.

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Okay, so I do not take a side with OU and OSU. I know some of you do. I just, I don't take a side. I just try and stay neutral.

I follow baseball. That's about the extent of my sports right there. I know if you wear orange or red in particular parts of Oklahoma, it's dangerous, and you better keep on stepping. The one thing I do appreciate with sports is being able to see the thousands of people being able to fill up a stadium like the stadium down in Norman for OU or different ballparks around the nation, and you're able to see the thousands of people that can come and can gather.

And here we see, even though tens of thousands of people, picture those stadiums.

In your head,.

Tens of thousands of people coming against David, he's not going to be afraid because he knows that God will sustain him. God will be with him. Thousands of people won't make a difference. Even though they set themselves against David all around.

So we see that God is a help to David, a strong help and a sustaining help. In the last two verses, we see that God brings the salvation to David. Verse 7 says, 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. I found it interesting to note that in verse 7 when it says arise, O Lord, it's a militaristic term. Israel used this in times past to say arise, O Lord, help us during this fight, fight with us, fight for us.

Now David's doing that now. He's saying arise, O Lord, help me, save me from this situation, save me from this dark time and from thousands of people coming against me. It says in verse 7, You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone.

You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Even in 21st century America, we know that someone walks up to another person and slaps them dead on. That's disrespect right there and that's contention and strife.

That's what God does to the enemies of his people. He's broken the teeth of the ungodly, signifying that he's taken the teeth out of the animal, kind of taking off like the harm that can hurt them, the harm that can befall the people of God from the enemies that come against him.

This could be David thinking back to situations like Goliath, to situations like Saul, where the Lord has been faithful to preserve David, to be a strong help for him, and to sustain him during this time.

This might also indicate that David is sure that this present situation, he has strong confidence in God that he will walk him through this and help him through this. In verse 8,.

Excuse me,.

You have this statement, Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Period.

What a very true statement. What a very blessed statement. Salvation belongs to the Lord and to no one else.

Period.

It's only in God that we can have real salvation, and it's only in this situation that David realized that he could have salvation from this present danger, from all these present enemies in this dark time.

Your blessing is upon your people. Again, period. The blessing of God is upon his people, even in the hardest of times. So we see the reality of David. We see that God has a strong help to him, and even in the dark times that the Lord preserves his saints, and through the psalm we can see pictures of Christ as well.

We can see that there were many who rose up against Christ, who said of him, even while he hung on the cross, dying for those who would believe in him, those who would repent of their sins and put their trust on him.

The enemies of Christ.

Said to him,.

There is no help for God in you right now. They said that to the Son of God, who is God himself. It's quite a thing. In Jesus Christ, he is our shield. He is our glory. He is the one who lifts up our head even though we are by no means guiltless.

We are sinners. He is the one who encourages us, who protects us, who is our glory. And if we humbly cry out to him, humbly have repentance, he will save us. He will be faithful to us. In Jesus Christ, we can know that whatever we face, we can sleep through even the darkest times because we are secure in Christ.

We're secure in him for who he is and what he's done for us. And salvation certainly belongs to the Lord. Christ has fought our fight for us. He's taken the sting out of death. He's taken the bite out of death for us even.

He is certainly our salvation and we are certainly blessed in Jesus Christ. Just a couple of thoughts.

From Psalm 3.

Thank you for letting me share that tonight. So, move on to prayer. Good old prayer. So, Michael could not be here with us today because Sophia had. I believe it's lupus.