Prayer Night Sermon (Psalm 3 And Bold Prayers)

Thank you for listening to the Shepherd's Church podcast. This is our Wednesday night service that is focused on prayer and walking through the

Psalms together. We hope that you are blessed and we hope that you will join us as we pray for revival.

Well hello again and welcome back to our Wednesday night service where we're taking a look at the Psalms and trying to understand what they are teaching us, how we can see

Jesus in the midst of these Psalms and also how the Psalms can lead us to pray. Tonight we're going to be in Psalm 3 and I want to dive right into this passage so that we can see the things that it's teaching us about who

Christ is and about who we are and about how we ought to learn how to pray even in the midst of very dark circumstances.

So if you will, turn with me to Psalm 3 as we look at this together.

This is what it says. Now, the

Psalms, as we've noticed in Psalm 1 and in Psalm 2, are a book that's given to God's people for a variety of different circumstances.

Psalm 1 was to teach us how to have a blessed life and a happy life in God, which is through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 2 was teaching us how to rest in the sovereignty of God, which again is through Jesus Christ.

Today we're going to learn about how to navigate a life where you have an enemy who is chasing you, persecuting you, afflicting you, and we're going to see how we can only do that through Jesus Christ.

Now the Psalms in general are a book that is trying to encourage

God's people in various situations. Maybe you would say that it's an encouraging book for discouraging times, or it gives good words during dark times.

And I can think of very few scenarios that are darker than the scenario that David is actually walking through.

David himself, at this point when he's writing Psalm 3, is king, his kingdom is well established. He's a few decades into his kingship now, he has all the treasures that he could imagine, he's living in the palace, his military is strong, the kingdom is unified, he's got multiple children, and David, as we see from about the

Bathsheba moment moving forward, David's life gets a little sloppy, where he's allowed certain things into his life that he shouldn't have allowed into his life, he does certain things with his life that he should not have done, and there's family conflict that happens between his children.

In one particular scene, his son Absalom gets so furiously angry that he basically vows to take the kingdom away from his father, he turns the people's hearts away from David, he plans and stages a full -on insurrection and coup, he leads the armies against his father.

David ends up abandoning the palace and going on the run with his loyal troops and Joab, his loyal general, and the whole scene ends up with Absalom, his son, being murdered,

David in tears, but the empire is still under David's control. It is one of the darkest scenes in David's life, and it's a fitting scene for David to write the third psalm.

The third psalm is about how do you navigate life, how do you pray, how do you rest in the truth of God, how do you fight when you have an enemy?

And that is what we're going to be looking at today, because for us as Christians, we don't have the same enemy as David.

No one in this room is a king, no one has an actual army that's chasing them down, but all of us in this room actually have enemies.

We have, in fact, multiple enemies. We have the world that hates Christ, that hates the

Church, that if they knew that we were in here proclaiming the truth of Christ, they would be gnashing their teeth against us.

There's active hatred and passive hatred all throughout the world when it comes to the knowledge of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So that is certain that we have an enemy, an enemy even in some sense greater than the one that David faced, because the legioness amount of people who hate

God in this country and across the world is unfathomable even for David. But that enemy attacks us less frequently than our second enemy, which is the devil.

And I'm not talking about the devil himself, the main head guy, Satan, who comes and afflicts us.

Satan is one being. He's not omniscient. He's not omnipresent. He's not omnipotent.

He cannot attack multiple people at the same time, much less all the

Christians in the world. But we are experiencing satanic attack in systemic ways, where nations are under satanic power, where ideologies are being peddled to us, like critical race theory, which are clearly satanic, or the

LGBTQ movement, which is clearly satanic, and on and on and on you can go. We are being attacked by satanic systems and structures and ideologies and worldviews and philosophies and everything else that are clearly satanic, whereas maybe we're not getting shot in the heart by fiery arrows by Satan himself.

The Lord will protect us in that way. But we are experiencing satanic attack in some ways, so I want to acknowledge that.

But by far, the enemy that we face the most frequently is not the world and it's not the devil, it is the flesh.

The Bible talks about the flesh as that inner stinking corpse that still exists, that is not yet completely put to death.

You've been ransomed away from your flesh, saved from your flesh. You died to your flesh, but your flesh still is there.

You're still tempted to sin. You're still tempted to turn from God. You're still tempted to chase after your lust and your temptations and your pride and whatever else.

It is your flesh that never leaves you. It is your flesh that never forsakes you. It is your flesh that is constantly there, tempting you, mocking you, accusing you, saying all manner of evil against you.

It is your flesh that the Bible tells you that you are to put to death daily if you want to live.

Your flesh is a greater enemy to you than Absalom was to his own father. This passage has relevance to us even though we don't completely identify with the scene that David is walking through.

We know that we also have an enemy, multiple enemies in this life, that this passage can have great relevance to our life as well.

David begins by describing the intimate agony that he has in having an enemy.

David, in general, is an emotional man. You see that all over the

Psalms. He's not afraid to cry out to God with his emotions and share how he's feeling with God.

Many of us really could learn from David in that sense and see how David is a model for how to pray because he doesn't hold back how he's feeling or what he's going through.

He simply just pours it out to God, and he shares with God how he feels.

For me, I think that's a wonderful introduction on even understanding how this Psalm can teach us to pray.

If you want to divide this Psalm up into three specific movements or three specific points, then you would say that David confesses and acknowledges who he is in prayer, or who

God is in prayer, and then the second movement is he prays thankfulness for who

God is in prayer, and then the third movement or third step is that he asks bold prayers, knowing who

God is. So he confesses and acknowledges who God is, he thanks

God for who he is, and then he asks bold prayers, knowing who

God is. So let's take the first one. The first one is that he confesses and that he acknowledges.

David confesses who he is even while acknowledging who God is.

For instance, look at the very first thing that he says. He tells God what it is that's going on in his life.

He's confessing who he is in light of his circumstances. He says, Lord, how my adversaries are increased.

David is admitting to God that I am small, and that I am weak, and that I can't deal with this situation, and I can't face these enemies on my own.

I need you. David is saying, he's acknowledging, this is who I am. I'm weak.

I'm incapable. I'm impotent. I can't face this situation without you. God, I'm confessing that I need you right now.

How my adversaries have increased against me. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying, oh my soul, there is no deliverance for him in God.

The entire world in David's mind has turned against him. His own family has turned against him.

The situation has risen up so heavy, and so big, and so monumental that David is left with the recognition that he cannot save himself.

That he has no power in this situation. He is confessing who he is to God in prayer, and I don't want you to miss that.

David's crying out to God, which means that David is praying. We have this as a song, and as a psalm, and we've sung this song already once tonight.

We're going to sing it once more tonight, but this is a prayer to God. David is confessing who he is.

He's acknowledging the situation is too big for him. He's admitting to God that he has fears, and that he has doubts, and he has insecurities.

He's confessing his own insecurities, and sins, and everything else, but he doesn't stay there.

Because faithful prayer doesn't just stop at what my situation is. Faithful prayer doesn't just stop at what

I need from God, and I'm going to treat God like he's my vending machine, where the only need that I have from God is what

God can give to me. That's not what faithful prayer is. David is showing us what faithful prayer is, and that, yes, he's acknowledging who he is.

He's acknowledging what his situation is. He's acknowledging his great need before the Father, but he doesn't stop there.

He moves on from confessing and admitting to praising

God for who God is. He doesn't just stop at who he is.

He moves on to who God is, and he celebrates that God is his defense. He says, but you,

O Lord, are a shield about me. It doesn't matter how many armies are against me. It doesn't matter how I feel. It doesn't matter that I'm insecure, and afraid, and alone.

You are my shield. You are the one that's going to protect me. You are the metal that the enemy can't break through.

You are the one that I stand in the shadow of. Yes, at one point in my life, David would say, I felt powerful.

I had the armies, but now the tables are turned. My son has the armies. He's coming after me.

I am vulnerable. I am weak, and I am pitiful. I need you, and yes, I will admit, and I will say out loud that my

God is going to protect me because he's the shield. Do you see what David is doing?

David doesn't stop at just admitting the situation, and he doesn't stop at just confessing his own doubt, and fear, and disappointment like most of us do.

We'll confess to God, God, I'm depressed, or I'm discouraged, or I have anxiety, or I don't feel like you love me anymore, and we'll confess these things to God, which is appropriate.

But what David does is he doesn't stay there. He says, in light of all my mess,

I'm still going to say and declare that God is my shield. David moves past himself, and he moves onto the character and the glory of God, and he says, you are the one that's my glory in the battle.

You are the one who's going to take care of me. I'm not going to get any glory from this battle because I didn't win it.

You're the one who fought it. You're the one who lifts me up. You're the one who protects me like a shield.

You're the one, even though every fiber of my being is tempted right now to let my head droop down in some sort of depressed agony,

I refuse to do it because I know who you are, and I know that you're the one who lifts up my head.

And I, I will be pleased in God, even in unpleasurable and awful circumstances.

That is what David's doing. Do you see how his prayer is actually ministering to his soul?

He comes in depressed. He comes in discouraged. He comes in defeated, and yet he leaves by declaring that God is his shield and that his head has now been lifted.

David understood that prayer is a ministry to the Christian soul and that we don't come discouraged and leave discouraged.

We come broken, but we don't leave broken. We come with our pains, but we don't leave with our pains.

David knows that we bring these things to God, but that's not where we stop. We bring these things to God, and then we declare over our pain and our misery and our and our problems and our trials.

We declare who God is and who God is lifts our countenance and who

God is lifts up our soul and who God is brings us pleasure in the midst of pain.

We don't only confess who we are and how we fall short. We declare who

God is. That's the first lesson we learn in prayer is we confess and we praise in the same breath, and it's a ministry to the

Christian soul. The second thing that David teaches us in here is that we also have to thank

God for who he is and rest. So we confess who we are.

We acknowledge who he is. We thank him for who he is, and then we rest in who he is. Look at what he says in verse four.

He says that, God, you meet me in my tears. I was crying to the

Lord with my voice, and he answered me. David is saying that when I cried, God was with me.

When I had that pain or that heartache or when that person abandoned me or when my own son turned against me or when my daughter turned against me or when cancer came looking for me or whatever it was that was accosting me,

God was with me in the midst of my tears, in the midst of my agony. God was right there with me ministering to me.

He's acknowledging, once again, who God is, and he's thanking God that there's not a single square inch on planet

Earth where I could be in pain, where God could not be with me because I'm his. He's saying to God, you are with me, and that is good enough for me.

He's saying, I was crying and you answered me. And notice where God answers David.

God doesn't just answer David in a random place. God answers David from his holy mountain.

You see, Absalom had chased David out of his palace. He had chased

David away from the tent temple tabernacle, which sat on top of the mountain of God, which we now know as Jerusalem.

David was saying, even though I'm in the valley of the shadow of death, even though I'm looking up at the city that I used to sit down on the throne in,

I can hear God calling me back to the mountain. And that is good news for us as Christians because the mountain represents where God's presence dwelt.

His presence was pleased to inhabit the tabernacle, and then eventually the temple, and then

Christ, the son of the living God, came, and he's the one who was tabernacled among us in the city of Jerusalem.

He's the one who was lifted up on a cross, showcasing that the presence of God had now fully come to man, and that now, because of the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit, that we can know God and be in relationship with God and in the presence of God everywhere.

So what I want us to see is that there is nowhere on earth that you can go to be away from the presence of God if God is in you.

He cries out to you from his sanctuary on Sunday mornings when the word of God is preached and the sacraments are offered.

He cries out to you in your prayer closet because he's in you and he's with you. He cries out to you from his word.

You have it infinitely better than David, who looked to Jerusalem as the singular point on earth where God was pleased to dwell.

Now God is in you, dear Christian. There's not a single place where you could cry, where God is not wiping away your tears.

There's not a single place you could go in your fears, where God has not given you courage. There's not a single place that you could run where God cannot find you because he's not just outside of you.

He is inside of you. He is intimately personal with you. I just want you to understand, dear

Christian, that as you pray and as you confess your sins and confess your circumstances, you need to rest in the truth of who

God is. He's your shield. He's your glory. He's the one who lifts up your head.

He's the one who's there to wipe your tears, and he's the one who cries out to you from his holy mountain, where Christ himself came and gave his life as a ransom for you.

Christ cries out from his mountain for you to look to him and trust him and rest in him. David says,

I lay down and I slept. Think about how unbelievable that statement is.

David is being chased by his own son. David is—there's a death threat on David's life.

There's an army that's been mobilized to kill him, and that army used to be mobilized to defend him.

David is the most vulnerable person in all of Israel at this point. You can imagine any normal human being having trouble sleeping in a night like that, and David says,

I laid down and I slept. Plain and simple. I didn't toss and turn.

I didn't rub my eyes. I didn't have to count sheep. I didn't have to do anything. I lay down and I slept because now, after my prayer, after telling

God what's going on with me, but more importantly, resting in who God is, now

I can sleep. I know who God is, and I can sleep. I know that God is defending me, so I can sleep.

I can close my eyes without fear. I can rest knowing that God is going to take care of me.

In this life and eternally, we know that in Jesus Christ. There's no enemy that can actually cause us, if we are resting in who

God is, to have fear. We are afraid when we either think too highly of ourselves or think too highly of our enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil, but when we know rightly who

God is, there is no fear. Perfect love casts out fear, and we see that in David.

The most vulnerable moment of his life was when he slept, and he slept like a baby because he knew

God. That's the second thing. He confessed and he acknowledged in his prayer.

He prayed and he rested in his prayer. And then the third thing is he asked really bold things in prayer because he knew who

God was. He doesn't ask small prayers. He says, arise, O Lord, save me.

He's saying that God, rescue me from my enemies, which is a bold prayer at this point because David has sinned and David has done things that should cause him to die in his sins.

And yet, knowing how gracious and loving and caring God is, David prays bold prayers and says,

God, rescue me. And he says, God, you have smitten all my enemies on the cheek. David's not waiting until the battle.

He knows that God has already won the war. He's not waiting for swords to slam against each other.

He's not waiting for shields to be broken. He's not waiting for blood to be spilled. David knows on the basis of who

God is that God will defend him, God will protect him, and God will win the battle.

He will smite his enemies on the cheek. He will shatter the teeth of the wicked. He will defend his servant

David because salvation belongs to the Lord. David's prayers are bound up in the character of God.

He knows that rescue, salvation, deliverance, all these things are bound up in who

God is. And for us as Christians, how much more so do we know that in Jesus Christ? David could declare that salvation belongs to the

Lord, but we who know Jesus, the true and greater David, how much more so should we have confidence and boldness in the fact that the risen

Christ has brought salvation to his people? David says in verse 6, I will not be afraid of 10 ,000 men.

How much more so for the church of Jesus Christ to say, I will not be afraid of 7 .5 billion men who live on the earth right now today because my

God loves me. Our God cares for us. Our God has given us a mission and a purpose in this world.

How much more courage does the church of Christ, should the church of Christ or must the church of Christ have because we know

Jesus Christ? This passage is a manual on how to pray.

This passage is a doctoral thesis on how to pray. This passage lays out three beautiful steps on how to pray.

The first is confess who we are, acknowledge who God is. That's the first. The second is rest in who

God is and thank him for who he is. And the third is knowing that ask bold prayers, bold kingdom prayers.

Ask him to deliver you from your enemies. Ask him to give you success in the battle. Ask him to multiply his church on the face of the earth so that the gospel can go forward.

Ask him that lost people will be found. Ask him that he will raise dead people from darkness into light. Ask him for bold prayers because salvation belongs to the

Lord. We know who our God is and his blessings belong to his people.

You don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be cowardly. You don't have to be timid.

Pray boldly, my dear friends, because you know who God is.