Book of Psalms - Psa. 3, Vs. 1-8 (08/21/2022)

Cool. Well, good morning, everybody. I wanted to see if I could get through Psalm chapter three.

It's going to be a challenge to try and do the entire chapter. I don't know that it's going to happen, because late last night

I started nerding out over it a little bit and got some of the backstory to it.

And I really think in order to really appreciate Psalm chapter three, you kind of need to know what's going on in David's life and what's going on in his head.

So we're going to go look at some of the history behind the writing of this

Psalm, because he wrote this Psalm when he was running from his son Absalom. And so what

I want to do, just real fast, why don't we open in a word of prayer, and then we'll look at the backstory.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we just ask that you just reveal your word to us today. Help us to understand it and to really take a deep dive into it and help it to be a great application for our own lives.

We love you. It's in Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen. Okay, so there are only eight verses to this

Psalm, and it can be broken up into about four parts. There's a conflict, and then there's somewhat of a calling upon the

Lord. Then we see confidence from David and ultimately conquering.

So it kind of plays out this way. What's really cool about the way this Psalm is written is that we're going to see an emotional roller coaster occur with David.

And it's not really a full roller coaster. It's going from a very low point to an ultimate high.

So it's like the click, click, click, click, click almost, right? It's the part where we're going to get from the bottom to the top.

And I think this Psalm is really a great encouragement for anyone who's going through something difficult and needs encouragement in the

Lord. But it was written by David. So it starts off and even tells us it is a

Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. All right, so let's take a look at that backstory real quick.

Before you see that backstory, there's another backstory that kind of gets thrown into the mix, and that is the backstory of David's big sin where he looked upon Bathsheba with lust in his eyes, decided to take her from her husband

Uriah, sends her husband off to war to be killed. So essentially murders her husband and takes her for his own wife.

He then later is informed by his friend Nathan that he is going to be cursed for this.

And we will look at that curse first. So that's found in 2

Samuel 12, verses 11 and 12.

So this is the prophet Nathan basically telling David, you're in trouble.

Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbors, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun.

For thou didst secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel. I think

I'm actually missing a little piece of that. I think there's something right before that.

So I'm going to go run over to that real quick. 2 Samuel 12, let's look at verse 10.

Okay, I meant to include verse 10. So it actually says, Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house.

All right, so if you read the entire thing, you'll find out that this is

God basically saying, here's your curse for the sin that you've done. He says,

Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and has taken the wife of Uriah the

Hittite to be thy wife. And then he goes on to say,

Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun.

For thou didst secretly, so you were trying to hide your sin, but I will do this thing before all

Israel and before the sun. So the consequence of David's secret sin is a very open shame that's going to occur.

So that's kind of the first part of the backstory that I want you to kind of have in your mind, is that David has sinned.

There is major consequence to follow because of his sin. Now let's look at Absalom, his son.

Absalom is the third oldest of David's kids. He had Amnon.

I think that's how you say it. And he had Daniel. Daniel is not considered a contender for the throne.

Some say it may be because there was a little bit of question as to whether or not he was truly David's son.

But God did make Daniel favor David in his looks. So they're pretty certain that he was

David's son. But because there was at some point some question about it, that may be why he didn't have a claim to the throne.

So Absalom, being the third son, would be considered second in line to the throne of David, second only to his older brother

Amnon. Now we know that Solomon ultimately is the heir to the throne by divine appointment.

God says, I'm giving the throne to your son Solomon, who happens to be the son of Bathsheba.

So that's an interesting little backstory there. But here's Absalom. He was

David's favorite son. And make sure

I'm on the right part of my notes. So he's David's favorite son. And what we see with Absalom and all of his kids really is this curse begins to take place.

Absalom has a sister. This is his full sister. And Amnon, his older brother, is only a half brother because he's by a different wife of David's.

Well, Amnon apparently at some point rapes the full sister of Absalom.

Absalom is enraged and he arranges to have Amnon killed.

That plot succeeds. And Absalom flees to Geshur and is in a sense banished by the king and is not allowed to come back.

So all of that has already occurred in David's life before this psalm is written. There is a lot of turmoil, a lot of hate in his own household.

His kids are killing each other. There's a lot of judgment going on here.

But then Joab, thank you. My mom brought me some hot tea. I'm glad you found some.

No, this is good. That'll help with the voice a little bit. Joab, who is one of David's trusted advisors, most trusted, notices that David's thoughts are continually towards Absalom.

David's thinking about his favorite son. And it's really sad what all has occurred to this point.

So Joab, just to kind of condense a lot of scripture, he employs the help of a wise woman to play the part of a mourning mother.

She goes in to see David and basically says, I have these two children, these two sons, and one kills the other.

One killed the other. And now that, of course, makes her very sad that one of her sons killed the other.

Sound familiar? And now everyone wants to kill my son who killed my other son.

They want blood for this. They want vengeance. And they want to take my other son and leave me with nothing and leave my husband with no heirs.

And so she's playing this part. Joab has put her up to this.

And David swears to her, not one hair shall fall from your son's head.

Like he's going to protect her. And she then begins to take the story and relate it to David's own situation.

And she goes, oh, it's interesting. You know, you've got the same sort of situation going on.

I'm paraphrasing a lot here, okay? And that's when David kind of gets a clue.

And he asks her straight up, did Joab put you up to this? And she comes clean.

And she says, yeah, he kind of did. He put, nothing is hidden from my Lord. Like you figured us out.

And David, his response is, okay. Joab, send for my son.

So he kind of gives in, like, wow. You know what? Let's let him come back.

Almost as if Joab's little ruse was actually successful. He knows that Joab loves him.

So maybe that has played a part in it. So he softens a little.

But he does not want to see his son. So Absalom is allowed to return after several years.

He comes back. But he is not allowed to go see his dad for several more years. He has to go to his own house.

He's not dwelling in the house of David. And so this is what is leading up to right before Absalom rebels and tries to take the throne.

David has softened a little bit. Well, Absalom, through a little bit of manipulation against Joab, gets

Joab to go to the king and say, hey, you need to call for your son. And so Absalom gets an audience with the king.

And he is seeking some resolution.

He wants to make things right, or so it seems. But there's a couple of other things that Absalom has going for him.

He is apparently an absolute supermodel. I know that sounds like, wait, why does the story take that turn?

But it begins to describe, as he comes back into the land, that Absalom is a supermodel.

In fact, there's a verse about it I have in here. Let's see. It's in chapter 15,

I believe. Let's see if I can find it in my notes.

Maybe I can. There it is.

Or so I thought. Can y 'all find it? It's in 2 Samuel, either chapter 15 or chapter 14.

But it basically says that he has great beauty.

I'm trying to find that verse. It's really quite funny how it describes him. And I apologize.

I know I have it somewhere in my notes. But there was so much backstory, I've got a ton of notes.

And I don't want to take all my time up. So you can look it up. It describes in great detail that Absalom is, there's no one else in the land who could be.

Did you find it, Ben? Yeah, read it out loud to me. Or better yet, give me the verse and I'll read it so the people online can hear too.

It is 14. 1425, 2 Samuel 1425. Thank you,

Ben Jamin. All right. Yes. But in all Israel, there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty.

I mean, that is saying something right there. It goes on.

From the sole of his foot, even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him.

And then it says, and when he pulled his head, which means like he cut his hair, for it was at every year's end that he pulled it because the hair was heavy on him.

Therefore, he pulled it. He weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels after the king's weight.

I mean, we're talking about Fabio here. This guy is absolutely gorgeous and has long flowing hair.

So when people look upon Absalom, they're like, wow, you know, and then it goes on to tell us that he has three sons and a daughter and he's married to Tamar, who is described as a woman of fair countenance.

Now, that's as far as it goes to describe her beauty. But make no mistake.

It's literally saying that she's gorgeous, too. So not only is Absalom an absolute gorgeous man, he is married to a knockout of a woman and they're like a power couple.

And now he comes into the land. So you got to understand there is a lot of reason why David has loved his son.

Like he is Mr. Cool. Right. And when he comes back, he plays the part of Mr.

Cool. He gets an audience with the king. He goes to the king and David shows that he has forgiven his son by kissing his son.

All right. So now things seem cool with his son. It says on the last verse, chapter 14, verse 33.

So Joab came to the king and told him. And when he had called for Absalom, when David called for Absalom, Absalom came.

He came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king and the king kissed

Absalom. So things are cool now. But look what he does in chapter 15.

So I'm going to go to the next chapter here. Second Sam 15. The very next verse says, and it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him.

So he immediately puts together a posse. And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate.

So he goes to the city gate. And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, anyone from outside the gate comes to see

David. Absalom called unto him and said, of what city art thou? And he said, thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel.

All right. So he basically says, all right, hey, where are you coming from? And he intercepts these people. And this is what he would tell them.

He would say, see, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.

And he says, oh, that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice.

And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he would put forth his hand and took him and kissed him.

And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment.

So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. So he's intercepting all the people who are coming to David for help, and he is playing the part of the king.

He's a usurper. And this is immediately after he has just received a blessing or a forgiveness from his father.

He puts together a posse. He's this great -looking guy who's going to help everybody, and he charms all of Israel.

He steals their hearts. Now, he did this for 40 years.

That is playing the long game. He does this for 40 years.

That is a lot of time to steal a lot of hearts. Now, fast -forward after 40 years.

He goes to his father, and he asks his father if he could go to the land of Hebron because he has made a promise that he must keep, that if he was ever to return to the land of Jerusalem, which he is in now, that he would serve the

Lord. So he's got to go back to Hebron to make good on this promise. When he gets to Hebron, he sends spies out to all the parts of the land.

And Hebron, just to remind you, is where David was anointed king. And he says, at the appointed time, when you'll hear the trumpets blow, that all you spies in all the parts of the land shall proclaim,

Behold, Absalom ruleth in Hebron. So this is his point of making his plan known.

And at this point, he has stolen the hearts of the majority of Israel. So he does this.

Word gets to David, and he realizes this isn't just coming from one place.

This is coming from everywhere. Everyone is saying that my son is ruling. This is a rebellion on a massive scale.

And it looks like it's going to succeed. And it's his own favorite son who he loves.

He's not going to fight, so he leaves. He's got about 200 men who insist on coming with him.

So he leaves, and he passes over the Brook Kidron, which there's a lot of significance to this brook, which

I won't get into for the sake of this study. But if you want some really interesting studying, study the

Brook of Kidron, and you find out that there is a lot of significance with past kings and even with Jesus Christ.

And it has to do with the breaking of idols and destroying of idols in the nation.

So when the Brook of Kidron comes into play, something big is about to happen every time.

David's just running, but there's significance in him crossing this Brook. Okay. So that's the whole backstory.

While he is running, that's when he gets word that one of his most trusted advisors, not

Joab, but another one which has a really weird name, Ahiphatel or something like that. I don't remember how to say it.

He has sided with Absalom. So this is like salt in a wound already.

It's adding just, what do you call it? Insult to injury. Things have just got, it's already terrible.

Now he gets word that one of his most trusted advisors is adding credence to this rebellion.

He's adding legitimacy to it. Then as he's leaving, a man by the name of Shemay throws rocks at him and his men and starts cursing him saying, oh, that bloody man.

And he calls him a son of Belial. And what he's doing is he is reminding

David of that sin that he had in his life. He's cursing him and basically letting him know you are of the devil.

So you don't have God on your side. And he tells him, get out, get out.

As he's leaving. This is what David's going through. His family has fallen apart. They've killed each other.

His favorite son has rebelled against him. And now it seems like the hearts of all of Israel are rising up against him.

He's got to leave. And even as he's leaving, he's being kicked. It's just terrible.

So that's a lot of backstory, but we still have time to get through. I think Psalm chapter three.

So I wanted you to understand everything that's going on behind the scenes because that is what has happened right before David writes

Psalm chapter three. Now here's how it starts.

Whoa, come on, computer cooperate. It's a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son,

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many there they are that rise up against me.

Many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. And then there's this word

Salah. And this is my absolute favorite word in the entire Bible. Salah. And what's funny about it is no one really knows exactly what it means.

But if you see how it's used and why it's used, it brings a lot of meaning to the scripture.

The first two verses are the verses where David states his conflict. All right.

So he's telling God. Things are bad. Everyone's against me.

And that is bad enough. But the real trouble, the really, the thing that cuts to David's heart.

Is this thing where he says many there, many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for him in God.

And the way we know that this is the thing that really bothers David is because of the word Salah at the end.

So Salah doesn't have a meaning per se, because it's not a word that is necessarily defined.

Salah is a musical instruction. And there's a lot of debate between scholars about how this musical instruction should be used.

Some say it is a dramatic pause. Others say it's that you should sing louder in the song.

In fact, if I can find my note from Charles Spurgeon. Here it is.

Charles Spurgeon says Salah. This is a musical pause. The precise meaning of which is not known. Some think it simply arrest a pause in the music.

Others say it means lift up the strain, sing more loudly, pitch the tune upon a higher key.

So this is how, how Charles Spurgeon tries to describe what this word is used for.

If you looked up the word Salah as a name, because it is sometimes used as a

Hebrew name, you'll find that it means rock or Boulder. So when you see the word

Salah, this isn't used as a name in this passage, but it brings a similar flavor as rock or Boulder.

What it means is that it's bringing weight to whatever is preceding it. Okay. In music, you pause for drama, right?

Like the, the, the music pauses and you sing acapella for a moment and it, it brings attention to that point.

Or if it is to sing louder, it's raising the key so that this is the crescendo, right?

So even though it's kind of hard to truly define the word Salah, you can understand why it's used.

It's to bring attention to what was just said. And the reason why I love it so much is that you're going to see that Salah takes on three different feelings, but they all bring weight in this passage.

It's going to be used three times and it's going to have a different feeling each time. This time is

David just thinking about his own conflict and telling the

Lord people are rising up against me, but they're saying, there's no help for me in God.

You see the pause it's like, Whoa, like that is it's, it's tinged with fear almost like that's the part that hurts.

So that's the first two verses. So then David begins to do what David often does in the

Psalms and throughout his life is when he has a little bit of fear, he begins to encourage himself in the

Lord. I'm reminded of when he comes back from battle and the Amorites have stolen all of his stuff and all of his people and David and all of his men are devastated to the point where his men fall on the ground and cry like babies.

And some don't have the strength to pick themselves back up. And it tells us, but David encouraged himself in the

Lord. And he asks God, should I pursue? And if I pursue, can I win? And God says, yes, pursue and you will recover at all.

But it tells us that David encouraged himself. So anytime David feels a little fear or a little uncertainty, he turns to the

Lord and the way in which he does it is he reminds himself about who

God is in his life. So let's go to the next two verses, but thou O Lord are to shield for me, my glory and the lifter up of mine head.

He begins to state who God is. David's encouragement is rooted in the character of God.

Let me ask you a question. When do you need someone to lift your head up when you're down?

And it's interesting you say it that way. It's not necessarily when your head is down, but you say it's when you're down.

It feels like what the picture that goes in my head is a soldier fallen on the battlefield.

Defeated, they're prone, they're like laid out and someone runs to them to pick up their head.

That's where David is feeling right now. That's what he's feeling. That's where he is emotionally. He says, but thou

O Lord are a shield for me. This word for shield is buckler and it means to cover or surround.

This is more than just a front facing shield. It's like an all encompassing force field.

Why would someone who has fallen on the battlefield need one of those? Because the attacks don't stop.

In war, when a soldier falls, it's not like, okay, we got one, stop all the bombs.

He's fallen on the battlefield and now he's completely vulnerable and the bullets still fly.

The bombs still explode. So it's when David is at this point, completely defenseless and vulnerable that God comes and surrounds him.

Thou O Lord are a shield to me. My glory and the lifter of my head. The word my glory means like the honor or dignity.

So here he is, he's a king, but he feels like he is prone in the battlefield. Like, is that the word prone?

Meaning laid out? Okay, I'll make sure I use the right word. He's laid out like a dead guy on the battlefield, but he's supposed to be a king.

See, David realizes that his kingship doesn't reside with the seat of the throne.

He knows this because back in Hebron when he was anointed king, he didn't have the throne yet, but he was king because God said he was.

And then he had to run from Saul for years, but he was king during that time too. So what is he recognizing?

He's saying, God, you made me king. You're my glory. You're the one who gave me that position.

It's not that I have to sit on the throne. It's not that I have to have the love of the people even. Took time for me to gain that in the first place.

I'm king because you said I was. And that's when God begins to lift him up.

You're the lifter of my head. That's how, that's the feeling in this passage.

All right. He says, I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill.

There's the word Salah. Notice there's a little bit of a change in the feeling.

Salah bringing attention to this phrase. He heard me. I cried with my voice and he heard me.

There's a spark of hope to this Salah. It's interesting that he uses,

I cried out with my voice. We can pray silently. He says he uses his voice. See, when his enemies are rising up against him, like we read in Psalm 2, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

When the enemies are rising up against him, they are speaking out against him, like Shammai throwing the rocks.

They raise their voice up against David and he raises his voice to the

Lord. That's his response. Not to raise his voice back to them.

Instead of getting in a shouting match or trying to plead his case with man, he pleads his case with God.

I cried out to the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill.

A spark of hope in that word Salah. So now we've moved from conflict to David communicating his call to the

Lord. Next, we're going to see David communicate confidence. I laid me down and slept.

How can you possibly do that? If you are in the midst of war with things going on around you and you are vulnerable and prone on the battlefield, you just go to sleep.

That shows a level of confidence that he's going to be okay. But it's not just that.

Because watch what he says next. I await for the Lord sustained me.

Like, I'm going to go sleep. No use in worrying about this now. And if I wake up, it's because God wanted me to.

And sure enough, I did. I woke up. God still has me here for a reason. Notice what's happening with David.

He's in a terrible situation, but his mindset is already changing about that situation.

So if we find ourselves in massive conflict, in drama that we don't know how to get out of, when we find ourselves feeling like we're completely defeated, we just do what

David did. Remind ourselves of who God is and the fact that we are

His. He's the glory of our head and the lifter of our head.

I awaked for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me roundabout.

We're definitely seeing some confidence here. He's like, come on, let's bring on 10 ,000. Absalom's been described as having about 600 men for fighting.

But then, of course, he has all the hearts of Israel as well. And a lot of David's most trusted advisors.

But David's like, bring on 10 ,000. I've got God on my side. What a turnaround.

Many are increased who trouble me. Many are they who rise up against me.

Many there be that say of my soul there is no help for him and God. Look at the massive turnaround in David's attitude at this point.

And that's just through the first six verses. Psalm 3, verse 7.

We begin to see David conquering. But it's not really David doing the conquering.

It's the Lord doing the conquering. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my

God. For thou hast smitten all my enemies upon the cheekbone.

When you call on the Lord and you remind yourself of who he is, don't just stop there and go, yeah,

God's great and God loves me and this, that, and the other. Remind yourself of all the times God has provided for you.

Remind yourself of all the times that God has come through for you. We've been through some tough times before.

And in business, if you own a business, you've probably seen a lot of scary times.

COVID was an interesting time for our business. We do live event businesses with our

Tradeway stuff. And Katie started doing something really awesome that encouraged the whole team and helped us get through it.

She started writing down all the times that God did something that seemed miraculous in the business.

Like, whoa, we had an unexpected boost in the number of people who would attend an event.

Or we had way more sales than we expected. Or unexpected money coming back from the IRS. When does that ever happen?

Just miraculous things that we were shocked would happen at the last minute when we thought all was lost.

And there was miracle things. What she was doing is the same thing as what

David was doing. He was reminding himself of all the times that God has pulled through for him.

So do that when you're discouraged. Remind yourself of who God is and also what has

God done for you. Be like David who reminded himself he's not king because of everyone else saying he is.

He's king because of whose he is. He belongs to God. So same thing with us.

Who is God? And who are we to him? Connect those two thoughts and it makes sense why you can follow it up with all the things he's done for you.

He loves you so much that he gave up his only begotten son for you. That's the value you have.

Was it Brother Otis who said what is the value of a thing? It's what is paid for it.

The father paid the life of his own son for you. Your value is infinite because his son was an infinite being who was sacrificed for you.

So in your darkest hours, if you can remember that an infinite God paid an infinite price for what he saw as an infinite value, that will give you a little bit of confidence like David here.

That tinge of hope begins to take on real meaning like, oh, yeah,

God loved me that much. He heard me out of his holy hill.

He's listening to me like my voice goes and pierces the heavens and goes into his ears and makes him go.

I hear you. I'm coming. I'm going to help you. So then what does he do when he has the ear of the

Lord? He says, arise, oh, Lord. What boldness. He's telling God to do something.

Save me. God, come on. I need you. Oh, my

God, for thou has smitten all my enemies upon the cheekbone. Do what you've done before. Thou has broken the teeth of the ungodly.

Go fight this battle because I am like a dead guy. But just remember, you're the one who wins the battles for me.

You're the one who helped me defeat the lion and the bear and the giant. You're the one who gave me my tens of thousands of kills, my victories that people have sung about.

It wasn't me. It was you. He ends it with salvation belongeth unto the

Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Salah.

A whole new meaning yet again. Not a tinge of hope, but almost like a, whoa, victory.

Like, you know how you watch a movie and there's this massive struggle for whoever the hero of the movie is, especially in things like war movies.

I'm reminded of the movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson or Braveheart also with Mel Gibson.

Same movie. One happens in America and one happens, right? Like, so that's it's the exact same movie, same story practically.

But at the end of The Patriot, when he is about to be killed by the massive enemy,

I can't remember his name, but he's the main bad guy in the movie. He is on the battlefield and he looks up and he sees that they're winning this war.

He sees the waving of the flag and he's on his knees and he thinks he's about to die.

And the guy comes for the final blow to kill him. And that's when he does this number here and the guy misses and he turns around and kills the bad guy.

The difference, though, is that it's God who wins this battle. It's not us.

And the battle's already won. The victory is already there. Remember, God has already installed his king. We learn that in Psalm chapter 2.

But there's this glorious scene about us where you get to revel for just a moment in the victory that belongs to Jesus.

In the victory that he gives us because we belong to Jesus. This word,

Salah, had three different meanings in this passage. It starts tinged by fear and then it's sparked by hope.

And now it's crowned with victory. It's my favorite word in the whole Bible. And I don't even know what it means. But it's cool because you can see why it's used.

It brings so much feeling to the word. It brings it alive when you see the backstory and you think of all the stuff that David's been through and you go, what must he be feeling?

When things are going really bad for us, sometimes we think we're going to pray and it's going to get better.

But then sometimes it doesn't at first. And then we pray again and we don't get the solution that we were looking for.

This happens even in heaven when the saints cry out to Jesus and say, when are you going to take vengeance?

I mean, there is a waiting period in which we begin to doubt if God is even on our side, which is sin, by the way.

We're not supposed to do that. But God in his mercy will let us go through that.

And we have to recognize that's part of the journey. It's a testing of our faith.

And David begins to feel it himself. Oh, yeah, I did sin. Oh, yeah, I messed up.

And Shimei up on that hill was throwing rocks at me and he had good reason to because I am a bloody man.

I have messed up. I killed a guy for his wife. Maybe God doesn't really love me at this point.

Maybe I've lost the favor of the Lord like Saul, my predecessor, did before me. Those thoughts have to be going through his head.

And to combat those thoughts, he's wise enough to remind himself, oh, wait a minute. I didn't do anything to deserve kingship in the first place.

So I can't lose the kingship. Same with salvation. Isn't it interesting that at the end of this chapter,

David says salvation belongeth unto the Lord. We can't do anything to get it in the first place.

He gives it to us freely and we just receive the benefit of it. So because of that, everything else is just the effect of the cause, right, like David so often preaches.

And we see it play out here. And when we begin to get back in that mindset and remind ourselves we were okay because God made us okay.

Then, of course, the only person we can turn to is God. We can't fight the battle.

We can't raise our voice to those raising their voice against us. We got to raise our voice to the heavens. We have to remind ourselves of who

God is and who we are and the fact that we belong to him. And that because of that, that's why life was good in the first place.

And that's why life will be good again. And maybe it's in this life. Maybe it's in the next.

We don't know. David certainly didn't. But he rested in his identity that God had given him.

When he reminded himself of who God was, it reminded him of who he was.

If you want to know more about who you are, learn more about who God is. Get into his word.

Pray. And really, when you nerd out over the word and you start looking at the back stories and stuff, it really helps the word come alive.

It's awesome. I was up way too late. But it was a fun study.

So anyway, that's Psalm 3. I can't believe we did it. In the allotted time, we even have some time to take some questions or if you want to add anything.

Yes, sir. When I used to call it raw entrepreneurial fear,

David was in that moment. He said he prayed and he had to pray out loud.

But at some moment during that prayer, he then said, God heard me.

Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Oh, man, we need to make up the audience.

I'm going to try to say what you said for people online. So David says that he's experienced entrepreneurial fear and he'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking of all the day who rise up against him, so to speak.

And he begins to pray. Interesting. Your name's David. Maybe it runs in the name. Right. He begins to pray.

And when he does, it's like God kind of gives him peace, even though he doesn't know what's going to happen.

He doesn't know the resolution yet. The fact that God has heard him helps him go back to sleep.

Just like King David here. He doesn't know the resolution, but it's like God heard me. Let's go to sleep.

I don't know how it's going to be OK. I don't know when it's going to be OK. But I know he heard me and I know he loves me.

So let's get some rest. Isn't that cool? Anybody else?

Anybody else want to add anything or any questions or comments? Welcome.

Cool. All right. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much that when we cry out to you, you hear us.

There is no other God of any other religion who is so personal to give ear to his people individually like you do.

There is no other God who condescends to the level of his people like you did.

And you are the most personal and loving God. And that's why we know you are the one and true and only

God. It is the thing that sets you apart. You are living. The rest are dead.

You are loving. The rest are lording. Father, you are the only one worth following.

Father, that's why we do it, because you caused us to want to. You caused us to know who you were.

Because you loved us. That's why we love you. So thank you for that,

Father. Lord, we just ask that we will remember Psalm chapter 3 anytime life gets hard, that we'll remember the example

David set, and that we will also remember that really the scriptures only speak of you and your son, Jesus.

So when we read this, we realize Christ went through the exact same thing, hanging on the cross, saying, my

God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? He went through the same emotions.

He had people rise up against him. But ultimately, he stayed faithful to you, and he sat down on the right -hand side of God and got his appointment.

Just like we know David ultimately gets the throne back, your son conquered.

You conquer. Sin has been conquered. All our problems that we worry about, vanquished.

Help us to remember that, and help us to glory in the victory that you've provided, like David does at the end of this psalm.

We thank you for all the words of this chapter, because they have so much meaning.

We just ask that you help us to apply them to our hearts. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we ask these things.