Jan. 15, 2017 Afternoon Service - Though Troubles Assails by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Psalm 3 as a Lament of David Under Absalom’s Rebellion

It's not part of a larger series we still have before us, The Word of God, to which we must attend ourselves. Psalm 3 this morning, a Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son. O Lord, how many are my foes?

Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah. And we'll stop for just a moment in the reading. Selah is a term that appears in many of the Psalms that nobody has really settled on what exactly it meant or means.

The best analysis I've seen of it, and it comports with where we see it, it seems to make the best sense of it, is simply a pause. It's to stop and consider what has just been said of my situation, some attribute of God, whatever the case may be.

So Selah. Just stop for just a moment. Let the words sink in. But you, O Lord, verse 3, 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.

Selah. 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. Psalm 3, if you think about it, flows very logically from the first two Psalms in the Psalter.

Psalm 1, what does it do for us? It strikes out the different lives of the godly and the ungodly, and it strikes out for us as well their contrasting fates, where the one will not sit in the council, and they will be like chaff, and the other will be like a tree planted by the stream of water that produces its fruit in season.

In other words, stability versus not stability. That's the first Psalm. The second Psalm sort of marvels that men, despite the promises given to those who meditate day and night on God's law, from the first Psalm, despite the promise of what sort of life they would have and the view God would take of them, casting all that aside, the second Psalm sort of marvels that they should do that, that they should cast that aside, willingly rebel against God, the God of that law, in which the man of the first Psalm delights day and night.

So the first Psalm, these two contrasts made between the godly and the ungodly, the second Psalm, a marveling, if you will, that anyone would, hearing the first Psalm, then rebel against God, cast the cords away.

And now the third Psalm. The third Psalm is the first with a definite historical setting, something we can hang on to. We know the situation that caused the Holy Spirit to have David write these particular words.

Now what do we learn here in the third Psalm? Just in the initial reading before we really delve into the text, what do we see? We see that the hatred of the ungodly against the godly, but the hatred of the ungodly primarily against God, and thus because of hatred of God manifested in animosity against his people, that the first and the second Psalm both speak of to us, we find that those are not just theoretical constructs.

It's not an abstract idea that, well, we have a good God, and we have people who aren't quite as good, so there's going to be this tension. No, that's not it at all. It's real. It's not just a theory.

Their rebellion against God, against his anointed, and therefore against his people, not an abstract concept. Their attacks are real. The attacks are constant. The attacks are determined. I don't preach without notes.

I'm missing pages 2 through 5. Give me just a second, please. I'm trying to think on my feet about something I haven't prepared. You'll be glad I used notes. There they are. A Psalm that tells us that the ideas of the first and second Psalm, the hatred of the ungodly against God, and therefore against his people, not just an idea, not just a theoretical idea, not an abstract concept.

Psalm 3 is classified for us as a lament. It's called a lament. David is complaining about something. He's complaining to God about the enemies that have risen up against him, how many they are. These are the raging ones of Psalm 2 who want to burst their bonds and cast away their cords.

These are the ones, these enemies rising up against David. According to Psalm 2, are the ones who make Yahweh actually laugh. He holds them in derision. But from our viewpoint, from David's perspective, of course, there's nothing at all funny about it.

God's derision, God's laughter at them is not a humorous kind of laughter. But encompassed by his enemies, he complains to God. That's what a lament is, a complaint. He complains to God. His confidence in God is restored as he recalls God's nature.

His certainty in God's deliverance brings calm to his spirit. And with conviction, then, he calls upon him, upon God, to destroy those enemies. So these four headings, I think, will bring us through the psalm.

I think it's a good preparation for us for the table that is before us. Complaint, confidence, certainty, conviction. So what is the setting of this psalm? The setting of this psalm is Absalom's, who is, of course, David's eldest and famously handsome son, his rebellion against his own father and king, who is, of course, David, who was, of course, David.

A little bit of background here. We're not going to delve deeply into the history. I'm sure most of us are familiar with this. But Absalom was half-brother to Tamar. I'm sorry, Absalom was Tamar's brother.

Tamar is the daughter of David who was raped by her half-brother, Amnon. Absalom, her full brother, Absalom exacted his own revenge by murdering Amnon, and so he had to flee the kingdom. Eventually, David brought him back to the kingdom, but he'd have nothing to do with them.

They were kept apart from each other. Eventually, he incites a rebellion in Israel against his father. That's the record you can read in 2 Samuel 13 -18. Psalm 3 was apparently written while Absalom's rebellion looked like it would be successful from the human viewpoint, at least.

It looked like it was going to succeed. So many had joined him that David had to leave Jerusalem. He had to hide. David was deposed, and if he was captured, he would be killed. So this is his complaint.

The many, the many, the many who've come against him. Many are my foes. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying there is no salvation for him in God. There's a crescendo here. It's many foes, and then they rise up, and then finally what they say against David, but really against his God.

And what they mean is that God has abandoned him, that God has left him to his own fate. David had known more than any other Israelite king uninterrupted battlefield successes. He always gave the glory to God, and now, said his enemies, now that's all over.

Now we, under Absalom's banner, now we have the upper hand. Now there's some problems with this, this idea that they had, of course. First, in 2 Samuel 7, when God makes his covenant with David, the Lord promised to make him a great name.

So I'll make you a great name. And this is hardly possible if David had fallen to Absalom. But more importantly, when David confessed his sin, which we read of in 2 Samuel 12, when Nathan the prophet confronted him for what he had done, the very sin that led to the troubles that led to Psalm 3, God said through Nathan, 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, the Lord has put away your sin.

You shall not die. You see, there are consequences to sin. It can be very hard to bear. Yet David, writing this psalm by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David, knowing that what he was enduring had been decreed by God, David, whose unworthiness had been exposed and his sinful heart had been unveiled by his sin, yet he goes to God in prayer and he complains about the enemies he knew had been sent against him by the God to whom he complains about the enemies.

See, immediately we can take a lesson here because we must take our sin seriously. We must take sin seriously. By the help of God's Spirit, we need to bear up under his chastisement. We need to learn our lesson.

But may it never be said that there is no salvation for us in Christ. God's displeasure at our sin can be matched only by his pleasure in our repentance. 1 John 1, 9 assures us that we remain his children.

To look at someone undergoing his disciplining hand, to mock them, is to mock who? Ultimately, you're mocking God. Ultimately, it's God. To say God has rejected them completely is not only cruel, it besmirches his name, God's name, who said he would never leave or forsake his people.

Why not rather just say that what's really behind such mocking, that Christ's blood has lost its power to save and to preserve that one, that one that God has been chastising. Why not just say that God has removed what he had previously applied, as some would say?

And that's sort of what these are saying against David. There's no salvation for him. God promised him salvation once, but look at the situation he's in. Look what he's undergoing. Look how he is now under our hand.

And we're gonna chase him into the wilderness. We're gonna conquer him. We're gonna kill him. We're gonna raise up another king. God has certainly left him. Hard for David to bear. Hard for us to bear, should that be said against us.

But really, the insult is against God, against God's word, who told David, I will make a great name. You will not ever fail to have a son on the throne forever. I, God, Yahweh, have committed myself to you and for men, mere men, to say of David, no, God's removed himself from you.

How that must sound to the divine ear. See, faith in God, we need to understand that our faith in God is not denied when we lament the strain of bearing up under his disciplining hand. To complain to God about the enemies that he sent is not to become a Cain and say my punishment is more than I can bear.

David complains to God knowing that God sent them against him. He next expresses his confidence, he says oh Lord, which is to say oh Yahweh, oh Lord, he addresses God by this covenant name, the faithful God whose promises never fail.

As both Joshua and Solomon remind us, not a word of his good promises have fallen to the ground, except they have accomplished all that God sent them for. That God is the one he goes to, oh Yahweh, oh God, who is faithful to his own covenant promises.

Faithful and true to your own word, you Lord are my shield. What confidence he expresses is you are my shield. With all these many, many, many coming against me, these many who you have sent against me, yet despite all this and during all this, you are my shield.

With enemies who can only be numbered as many, he is, can we quote from Paul in 2 Corinthians, afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.

Now take note, dearly beloved, take note and hear this well, all you who are covered by the blood of the Lamb, do not let the vigor of the trial rob you of your confidence in God. Do not let the vigor, the rigors, the intensity, the sheer hardness of the trial take away your confidence in God who sent the trial to you.

Why do we say that? We know that God is working for our good. If we're truly in Jesus Christ, if our faith really is in him, God does everything he does for our good to make us better. By the things he brings upon us, he's working good in us.

By the difficulties which we so often, as did Israel's poet, bring upon ourselves, God is fashioning us into what? Romans 8, 29 says he's fashioning us into the image of his son. All things work for good.

And what is this good that God works all things towards? That we be like Jesus. That we be like him. So we can always say, no matter what we're going through, that God is our shield. Jesus Christ is saying yesterday, today, and forever, if he was your shield before sin forced the difficult lessons upon you, then he is your shield during and through those very same lessons.

I wonder if we should be even more confident in God when these sort of things happen. When we're brought under God's disciplining, his chastising hand. And what sort of God would he be if he didn't respond like this, like he did to David, like he has so often with, I would imagine all of us, if we had time to talk it all through and to reminisce with each other, the things that God has brought us through to teach us lessons.

What sort of God would he be if he didn't? Scripture says, it is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? You see, for God to do otherwise, for God not to have punished David as he did, would be for God to deny his very holiness, which is impossible.

It would mean that God's word, all that it says about how much he detests sin and iniquity, all of that would be a lie. And that's impossible. God cannot lie or deny himself. By decreeing the trials that show how grievous our sin is, he's showing that he is true to his nature and true to his promises to us.

And he's showing his love as he transforms us by our trials as we learn the lesson of the trial into what? Into the image of our Lord and Savior, his beloved son, Jesus Christ. Verses 5 and 6 speak of the certainty that he has during all of this.

You read these again. I lay down and slept. I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who set themselves against me all around. He's poured out his heart to the Lord.

He's told him in all truth how dreadful his heavy hand has been against him. He's expressed his confidence that God has not ultimately abandoned him. He is and always was and always shall be David's shield.

The certainty of this is seen in his peaceful repose. What ought we do after we've prayed the way David has prayed? Well, one easy answer would be sleep. Perhaps even metaphorically, rest. Rest in God, trusting in his word, trusting in God, trusting in his nature.

Did David at that moment know that he would be victorious over his rebellious son? I think he did. His sorrow over Absalom's death, you can read for yourself, he didn't know that that would happen. He didn't know that Absalom's good advice, or excuse me, Ahithopel's good advice would be rejected.

He didn't know how God would fulfill his word to David. Perhaps his exile would last a decade or more. Maybe he'd have to run from his own son for as long as he had run from Saul. You don't have any certainty in this, only that God would allow him, excuse me, that God would not allow him to die or for his line to continue through his wicked son.

So with this blessed assurance, trusting in God, his shield, what does it say? He sleeps. Now again, I'm not saying that the answer to it, the proof of our confidence in God is that we actually literally go to sleep.

I think it's more of a resting in the Lord that we have here. We can make a metaphor, we can spiritualize the sleep here and it's just confidence in God. I've poured my heart out to him, I've told him where I'm at, I've confessed my sin.

I know that God has heard me. It's a resting in him. And then he awakes. And when he awakes, verse six tells us of his strength and spirit. It says, I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

I mean, his complaint was about the many, the many, the many. They tore at his confidence. They made him fear and tremble. Their rage was too much for him and their taunts against his God demolished his hope.

But now, now after reminding himself just who his God really is, now after prayer to God that recounts his faithfulness and God's nature, now he has no fear of thousands and thousands. If previously it was the many, many, many coming against him that caused the complaint, now after going to God, thousands upon thousands cannot shake him.

All around him, surrounding him, gnashing their teeth at him like the Pharisees did against Jesus when they heard the truth from God from him. When we're under trials, you see, we ought to pray, of course.

How do we know when we've prayed enough? I sort of like this. Try to sleep. Just try to sleep. Are you unable to stop the whirring figures of your enemies in your mind's eye? Are you completely deprived of rest?

If not, when you awake, if you do ever get to sleep, ask yourself, where's your confidence? Is your confidence in God? It must be in God, not in ourselves, but if we've truly prayed to God, if we've poured out our spirits to him, our souls to him, if we've been transparent with ourselves and therefore with him, we should come away from prayer with a renewed and restored confidence in God, a reminder of who he is.

It doesn't mean all of a sudden everything's gonna be rosy and God's gonna take away all the trials because the trials were sent for our good because of our sin so often. But we can ask ourselves after this time of prayer, time of rest, do we wake up and we're sure again in God?

If the answer is no, I would only suggest back to your knees. We see conviction in verse 7. He's arisen from the God-sent of sleep and now he calls upon God to arise. Verse 7, arise, O Lord, save me, O my God.

No longer a petition, by the way. There's no timidity here. Contrition for sin is not forsaken, but now he's calling back to God his own commitments. As God rebuked the sons of Edom who cried out, raise it, raise it, and they're rebuked, they were punished by God for adding to their misery in a way that God hadn't decreed.

So here he says, arise, O God, even as I have arisen from my bed of tears, so you arise from your holy place and you, Lord, be my avenger. While I suffer under your good hand, your good will destroy those who destroy me.

We see at the end the answer to the taunt of verse 2. In verse 2, they said there's no salvation for him in God and how is that answered? It's verse 8. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is his, it is his alone to grant to whom he will.

To those elected before the foundation of the world to be in his son, Christ Jesus. Salvation is his, it's God's gift to give. It is blasphemous for a man to pretend to bestow what is God's alone and it's no better for men to claim that it can be removed.

Once God has determined, and it happened in eternity past, we read this in Ephesians 1, 3 -14. You were chosen to be in Christ before the foundation of the world when God, Yahweh, when the Lord of the universe makes that determination of his own free will, accountable to no other being or thing or anything, and chooses to put them in his son.

Lord willing, chose to put you in his son. For a mere man to come along and say, I think God has rejected you now and you're no longer in his son, Christ Jesus. It's the height of arrogance. I believe it is blasphemous.

In our trials we must look for God's design. We have to see what God is doing. So often we've brought it on ourselves, but so often we treat harsh times as just misfortune. We fail to look back to our own soul and ask why God has determined this particular set of events for us.

And then once the source has been identified, a good God with good intent has stood in our way with good reason and good intent, and I say then, let us pray. Let us pray and confess. Let us confess and repent.

Let us repent and recall the security that we have with God by and through our faith in his son. And may the end of our trial be a lesson learned and a greater love for our savior. David knew that it was he himself who brought on God's chastisement, and yet he still called out this lament, this complaint to God and said, many are my enemies.

He didn't fall back on some deterministic doctrine, says, I shouldn't have said anything because you, Lord, determined them. No, he still complains to God about them. And even as he circles through his prayer and comes away from a confident rest in God and awaking from that and say, arise, O Lord, and strike them on their cheek.

Lord, you be my shield. You be my avenger. Let us, as did David, in our trials, acknowledge it is we who brought them on. Let's never lose sight of the fact that it is God who is bringing good through them, and during them, God's promises stand fast.

And in Jesus Christ, all his promises, all his good word is yes and amen. Well, this psalm seemed to me a good design for the Lord's table, which is before us now. I mean, Luke was very specific when he wrote that Jesus explained to the disciples that to find him, all he had to do was look to the law, the prophets, and the psalms.

So our Lord Jesus, I think, is as much revealed in Psalm 3 as in any other. I think we can take the applications that I've offered to you to ourselves from Psalm 3 because we are men, women, with feet of clay just as was David.

We, like David, bring these things upon ourselves. We, like David, often need to look to see the lesson we need to learn and to maintain our confidence in God. And yet, by Jesus' own words, we know that the psalm must speak of him.

He says, O Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising up against me. I mean, think of Jesus now. Our Lord came to his own, but they did not receive him. That's John 1, verse 11. Throughout his ministry, his disciples diminished, really.

It was going the wrong way in terms of what we think of success in the church. They were going the wrong way. Read that in John 6, verse 60. And all the while, his enemies were growing in number and growing in rage and growing in determination against him.

And they said of David, there is no salvation for him in God. God would not rescue him from their hands, or so they thought. But think of Jesus. And think of how this psalm speaks of Jesus. Did not our Lord endure this taunt, this very taunt and more?

I mean, cruel as they were to David, can it even compare to this? From Matthew, chapter 27, verse 43. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now. Grace speaking, taunting Jesus as he hung on the cross.

Let God deliver him now, if he even desires him. For he said, I am the son of God. If David prayed, but you, O God, are a shield about me, then Jesus, David's greater son, he prayed, Father, if it is your will, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Psalm 3, verse 4 says, I cried aloud to God, and he answered me from his holy hill. Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 7, again, David's greater son answers that and says, in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

There's much more. I think there's much more we could do if we took apart this psalm, we could spend many Sundays on it. And each time, I believe, find Jesus Christ just looking back at us in these pages of Scripture.

But with this, we will close. With this, we will come to the table which elements are meant to set our minds on all this that I've spoken about Jesus. To the sacrifice our Lord made of himself on behalf of ruined sinners.

We're to think of Jesus Christ, hard set against by the same God who set himself against David. He was treated by God as if he, God's only begotten and beloved son, as if he were actually the enemy. Upon him, God cast all his fury at our sins as he hung on the cross.

Where God is called by David to slap the cheek and break the jaw of his enemies, so God had the Romans strike his son and press thorns into his brow and spit on him and mock him and scourge him and then to crucify him.

I wonder if we can press the figure from verse five a bit. Where David by God's sustaining mercy rose from his sleep. I lay down and slept, I woke again for the Lord sustained me. I will press it just a bit because if the figure drawn by the poet's words is not Jesus, then it's about nothing really, but it is about Jesus.

He went confidently to the cross, trusting his father's word so often stated in the Gospels that he would raise him up after three days from the tomb. And so he did, praise God, he did raise him up and so will he also raise us up after him.

We whose faith, we whose hope, we whose full assurance that our sins have been pardoned and our eternal destiny has been settled by and through our faith in Jesus Christ. So I think this psalm speaks as clearly of him as does any psalm that we have in the Holy Scripture.

And Lord willing, the Psalm 3 has shown us Jesus Christ has reminded us of his sacrifice and set our spirits in a good way to prepare ourselves for the table that's now before us. Amen.