“Save Me!” Psalm 3

Well, turn with me in your copy of God’s Word to Psalm 3. Psalm 3.

The title for this sermon is, Save Me. And that is the cry that we see in it. In verse 3, David cries out, arise, oh Yahweh, save me, oh my God. And this has become one of the divinely inspired worship songs of God’s people. God had David write it down and record it in God’s Word and it’s been preserved for us. And it is interesting to read through a song like this and think of it as a worship song, as David is running for his life. And as we see the circumstances there, it can be reminiscent of some circumstances that perhaps you have faced recently. Because as we read David’s words as he’s pouring out his heart, who hasn’t faced a time or two in life where you cry out to God to save you?

It could be a car accident, could be a bad storm, could be an encounter with somebody who wants to do you harm. Or maybe it isn’t something that obvious. Maybe it’s a deep depression that you struggle with. Maybe it’s anxiety or worry that grips you. Maybe it’s something that nobody sees that weighs you down, and you want nothing more than for that burden to be lifted. What do you do? Well, it’s in times like that that I’m so glad that God gives us Emmanuel. That he shows us what to do. And he gives us examples of what to do in his word. And that’s what we see tonight in Psalm 3.

The situation David, the author of this psalm, is facing is important to the significance of this psalm. It wasn’t something that David just sat down and decided, hmm, what would make a good song that I should write? I need another hit single for my album. What’s another song that I can add to it? That’s not how David wrote the Psalms. These were situations in his life where he was pouring his heart out and recording them. He was pouring his heart out to God. Most of the Psalms are addressed to God. And it says that in this prescription at the beginning of the psalm before verse one. It says a psalm of David. And it tells us the circumstances David was in. It says a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. And so we know that the background of this very song that David is writing is 2 Samuel 15 through 18.

When David is running for his life from his own son Absalom, David’s son tries to take David’s kingdom from him. and tries to execute his father and his loyal followers. And all of this was, in fact, part of God’s judgment on David. Part of God’s judgment for his sin with Bathsheba. Because we read in 2 Samuel 12, a few chapters before his fleeing from Absalom, in 2 Samuel 12, verses 10 through 12, it says this. So now the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says Yahweh, behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives from before your sight and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.” And this is, in fact, describing exactly what Absalom did, what Absalom did to his father. So this was not an unforeseen event in David’s life.

God had the mercy to tell him what was coming. That because of his private sin, he would be sinned against publicly. He would be chased from his home in Jerusalem. He would be running for his life from someone within his own household, which turns out to be Absalom, his son. Just like every single thing in your life is ordained by God, this was ordained by God in David’s life. And still there’s a lot of fear in David’s words here. There’s a lot of fear in David’s heart. And rightfully so. He is literally running for his life. If he’s caught by Absalom, he will be put to death.

And just because God is sovereign, that doesn’t mean we’re not still afraid sometimes. We don’t still have fear. Fear can be a healthy response to desperate and dangerous situations in life. But there’s another angle of this psalm that we shouldn’t miss before we dive into it. Absalom, in his desire for his father’s throne, as he was trying to unseat the king, he was trying to unseat the anointed king, the one who God put there. God’s anointed, the one whom he had established on his holy hill. And that language we find in the very, the psalm preceding this one in Psalm 2.

Psalm 2:6 says, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. Now this is often rightfully seen as a messianic psalm, speaking of Christ being installed on his holy mountain. But David also was the king God installed in Jerusalem. And David’s own actions show you don’t touch whom God has anointed as king. You respect what God has put in place. But Absalom had joined the ranks of the evildoers who were trying to overthrow God’s ways. In Psalm chapter two verses one through three, it says, why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate on a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and his anointed saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

This is exactly what Absalom was doing. This Psalm could be describing him. and what he was trying to do to God’s anointed king. And these Psalms are not just thrown together. A lot of them have a logical flow from one to the other. And that’s what we see in Psalms 1, 2, and 3. You begin the Psalter with Psalm 1, where you’re told to make your commitment, to settle your priorities. Are you going to walk the way of the wise and follow God? Or are you going to take the way of the fool and perish? Then you get to Psalm 2, and you see the kingdom of God on full display, that God anoints his king. And even though the nations want to tear that down, God’s king will be victorious. And then you come to Psalm 3, and immediately, it’s trouble for the king.

In fact, there’s so much trouble in the first, what they call the first book of the Psalms, that one commenter said, not many readers are able to wade through this first book of the Psalms without giving out. It is a very hard book to read. It’s a very hard book to read and come away with a positive attitude. Because a lot of the Psalms, David’s crying out for help. He is in a very troublesome spot in life. And that’s what we find here in Psalm 3, the beginning of trouble in the Psalms.

David’s prayer in Psalm 3 is a prayer in trouble. And maybe it’s a prayer for you. Maybe it’s a prayer that you’ve felt the need to pray many times for God to save you, save you from the circumstances that you’re in. So let’s begin to look at this psalm. And we remember that, yes, it is David who’s speaking, and he is God’s anointed king. But in the same breath, we can identify with what David’s going through. We can identify with what is on David’s heart.

And I really like the way that one commenter divided out this psalm and the headings he used for it. So I’m going to borrow those from him. And that’s Dale Ralph Davis. He’s a great commenter on the psalms, especially. And there’s really four divisions in this psalm and it divides up two verses at a time, as we’ll see.

And as we get into psalm three here, and really we see the first two verses are speaking of the enemies of David, the enemies that you face. Then verses 3 and 4 speaks of the God that you confess. Who is your God? Verses 5 and 6 speak of peace. The peace that David was able to enjoy in the midst of this circumstance. And then lastly, verses 7 and 8 are the help that David cries out for.

So let’s dig into this psalm here together. And the first division we see is the enemies you face here in verses 1 and 2. Again, it begins with the Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. O Yahweh, how many, or how my adversaries have become many. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. So David begins with his desperate situation. circumstances that he is looking at in life in this very moment. And he repeats the word many three times. There’s nothing but enemies around him. There are many of them. They are very worked up and agitated about this king. And they attack David with their words.

He speaks of their words against him. And it’s especially their words that are getting to David in this very moment. And they say of David, there is no salvation for him in God. Now they’re not saying that God cannot save. They’re saying for him, God’s not going to save him. They’re speaking of David’s unworthiness. They’re speaking of David’s wretched state, that God would not save a man like David. They don’t mean that God cannot help him. They’re saying God will not help David. God’s not going to save a guy like that. And sometimes this can be a temptation of our own. And we start to think about our own unworthiness. Because in one sense, these words are all too true. That we are not worthy of God’s salvation.

God does not save us because he found us more worthy than others. We don’t deserve the least of God’s mercies. And the best defense in face of thoughts like that, is to admit that that’s true. That is true. I’m not worthy of God’s salvation, but God is full of mercy, mercy for sinners.

As I was studying this psalm, one man used a good illustration of this very idea of owning up to the truth and his an illustration of the great composer, George Friedrich Handel, who’s a composer of music. And he was once told by a friend of his who had gone to a concert, and he was trying no doubt to compliment his friend, he said how dreary the music was at this concert hall that he went to and heard this music. Well, unbeknownst to him, the concert was playing Handel’s music. And so, Handel simply replied, you’re right, sir, it is pretty poor stuff. I thought so myself when I wrote it. And that’s what he’s owning up to. He’s owning up to, well, I didn’t think it was very good either.

Now, you see, this friend didn’t realize he was trying to compliment his friend, but it was actually an insult. But it’s a good illustrative answer here. There’s no sense in thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to. There’s no sense in thinking how great you are when the reality may not be that that’s true. Now, in actual reality, Handel is a great composer, and the music that he writes is not poor by any imagination. So we shouldn’t be unnecessarily self-deprecating. We shouldn’t be overly, I mean, that’s a form of pride itself. But the point remains that when we see the truth, we should realize it.

And as it comes to David and his facing up to their cries that there is no salvation for him, that he’s not worthy of God’s salvation, sometimes we need to realize, well, that might be true. I may not be worthy of God’s salvation, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have it. Because my salvation is not dependent upon my worthiness. David knows, as he’s facing this judgment upon his sin, That he’s been forgiven. That he has repented of his sin, he’s been forgiven, and yet there are still consequences.

So verse two shows us how subtle despair might be as it comes from people’s words. More pain may come from people’s words than with their weapons. More from their suggestions, their insults, than their actual attacks. So don’t underestimate the power that words can have. But what do you do in a situation like this? What do you do when you’re being attacked and you’re hearing insults and you’re, maybe it’s even from yourself? Well, what’s David doing here? Here in verses one and two? He’s bringing it to God. He’s bringing these allegations to God himself, he’s telling God about it. The very God who his enemies say wants nothing to do with him, that’s the one he cries out to. And David is telling him exactly what these people are saying about him. He’s pouring out his heart at the feet of a God who is not supposed to care about him. And that’s what you do in a situation like this. When you’re feeling the allegations or the implications that you aren’t worthy of God’s salvation, bring it to God and see what happens. See how he responds. See how he comforts your heart. So that’s number one. Verses one and two are the enemies that you face. That’s what David is saying here in Psalm three.

Then we come to our second division in verses 3 and 4, the God that you confess. So where does David go immediately after expressing the situation he’s in? He takes his eyes off his problem and he goes to God. Verses 3 and 4, it says, But you, O Yahweh, you are a shield about me, my glory. and the one who lifts my head. I was calling to Yahweh with my voice, and he answered me from his holy mountain.” So his enemies are saying, God wants nothing to do with you. There’s no salvation for you and God. Don’t even try. And David confesses, but you, oh Yahweh, are a shield about me. This is what they’re saying, this is what I believe is true.

This is a turning point for David in this psalm. After repeating the many’s in verses one and two, focusing on his enemies, he changes his focus to God. In that, but you. That’s an emphatic expression there. But even you, Lord, but even you, Yahweh, you are my shield about me. So what kind of God does David remind himself that he has? There’s a lot here in these two verses where David completely fills his focus with God.

First of all, God is a protecting God. He says, you are a shield around me. And that’s exactly what David needed in this time of his running for his life. In this episode with Absalom, we don’t have time to cover that whole story, but David was literally running and hiding because he was in fear for his own life. He was going to be killed if he was caught. And David literally needs a shield around him. He needs to be protected. And he sees that God is his protector. He doesn’t call out for his warriors. He doesn’t call out for his defenders in his armies. He cries out to God because God is his shield.

Secondly, we see that David sees God as a sufficient God. He calls God my glory. God is my glory. This term has a meaning of weightiness or substance or even wealth can be used that way. David’s kingdom is being taken from him. David’s glory is being taken out of his hands. He’s losing his earthly glory, but he says, God is my glory. This kingdom that he was holding onto was worth nothing in comparison to his God. God was where he found his glory in, his wealth. His substance was found in God, not in the kingdom that God gave him. So God is protecting David. He is sufficient for David.

And thirdly, he’s a restoring God. David calls him the one who lifts up my head. He says, you are a shield about me, my glory, the one who lifts up my head. This is an expression used for a restoration. And you see it throughout the Bible, but one place you see it is in Genesis 40, when Joseph is in prison with the cupbearer and the baker. And as Pharaoh restores the cupbearer to his position, it says he lifted his head. That’s that restoration. David knows if I’m going to be restored to the position I was in before, it’s God that’s gonna be the one to do it. God is the one who lifts up my head. During Absalom’s rebellion, David was in need of God’s restoring touch. Because Absalom had convinced the people of the nation to be on his side, to throw David out of the kingdom. So David knows if he’s ever going to be back where God wants him, where God placed him, it’s gonna be God’s work. God is the one who has to lift his head back to his position.

And then fourthly, he sees that God is an accessible God, that God is able to be accessed, that David can go to him. He says, I was calling out. to Yahweh with my voice, and he answered me from his holy mountain. David had left Jerusalem. He was on the run. He couldn’t go to the temple where God’s presence dwelt and speak to God in that way, but he knows. I cried out to God in my prayer, and from that holy mountain in Jerusalem where God dwells in the temple, he answered me. That God heard his prayers, even though he wasn’t able to be there in Jerusalem. Even when David has no physical access, he has access to God. And just in these two verses, David has gone from many, many, many are my enemies, to filling his focus, filling his vision with God. This is the God that he serves. He turns his eyes to his protecting, sufficient, restoring, and accessible God. His gaze is God-focused. Keep your focus on God, not on your trouble. He is the one that will lift you out of the mess. And that’s the second division of this psalm, the God that you confess. David immediately goes to reminding himself of his God. Before he even makes his request, he reminds himself of the God that he’s talking to.

And we get to the third division of this Psalm, verses five and six, the peace you enjoy. Because, David says, I lay down and slept I awoke, for Yahweh sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who all around have set themselves against me.” So what is David’s reaction to the reminder of the God that he serves? He goes to sleep. He goes off to sleep when there’s a violent insurrection happening, a real one. But in the following verses, we see David’s peace that overcomes him because of the God that he worships.

Remember, we saw in verse three, the emphatic, but even you, Lord. Well, here, David uses the same construction to say, but even I. It’s an emphatic use of I, but even I laid down and slept. Like, can you believe it? Running for his life, and he had enough peace to lay down and sleep soundly. So in verse three, because of you, Lord, and then verse five, even I, because of who you are, Lord, I can sleep soundly. I mean, just imagine running for your life and trusting God enough to take a nap, to sleep like a baby. These two verses focus on the present and then the future. Verse five speaks of his immediate peace. I laid down and I slept right now.

But then verse six speaks long-term. I will not be afraid in the future when ten thousands of men, when they all around have set themselves against me, And he explains why he awoke is because the Lord sustains him. David is not held in the grip of fear. And this peace is just not a momentary thing. Because of the God who he worships, because of the God who he’s talking to right now, he can have peace forever. He can have peace through all things. It controls the way that he looks to the future. With all of its uncertainty, at this moment when he’s writing this, he has no idea how this is gonna turn out. This might be his last days. And yet he is at peace.

Something to notice about the way David is speaking here is that your peace can be immediate. You can have peace right now. but the relief from your situation may not be. David is still running for his life. David has not been relieved of the situation that he’s facing. The reality of verses one and two, the many, many, many enemies are still there. And he has peace right now. You can have peace in your situation. You can have immediate peace, even though relief may not come for a while. In fact, David’s relief had not come yet. But David doesn’t have peace from his turmoil. He has peace in his turmoil. David’s peace is not dependent on the situation that he’s in. David’s peace does not come from his circumstances. David’s peace comes from God. And what did David do that night as Absalom was plotting his own death, chasing him through the mountains? He went to sleep.

Sometimes God works that way. Psalm 127 verse 2 says, it is in vain that you rise up early and that you sit out late. Oh, you who eat the bread of painful labors, for in this manner he gives sleep to his beloved. That verse is saying it’s in vain that you are so worried. And you’re staying up all night worried about your situation. He says, he, God, gives peace, gives sleep to his beloved. Sometimes God does that. He gives peace in our trouble and tragedy, and he can do that immediately. So David goes off to sleep. God can look after his own kingdom. Even though God’s kingdom is being taken from David’s hands, David’s at peace. His circumstances haven’t changed, and yet, He can sleep at night. So that’s number three, the peace you enjoy.

And next we see the fourth and final division of this Psalm. Verses seven and eight. Which is the help you expect. It’s not until now that David gets to his request. His his crying out to God to do something. He says in verse 7 arise. O Yahweh, and save me, O my God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheek. You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be upon your people. Selah. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation is His.

And again, it’s not till verse 7 of an 8-verse psalm that David gets to his request. Yes, he announces his situation in verses 1 and 2, but then he reminds himself of who God is. And he reminds himself of the reality that he can have peace in this situation. And then finally, he comes to the point of his request. I think that’s instructive, as we think about the way that we pray. I know sometimes myself, I mean, requests bat lead off for me. God, help me with this, help me with that. How often do we start with, God, how great you are? What a God that I worship. God, I know that you can do this. I know that you are worthy. I know that you are sufficient.

David begins with those things and then comes to his desperate request. And he cries, arise, save me. So we can see that his deliverance hadn’t come yet. He has his peace, but he still needs deliverance. He still needs to be delivered from Absalom and company who are still hunting him. They want to take his life and take his kingdom. But even though David’s crying out, please save me, you can see confidence in David’s request here. Because he speaks in past tense, as though this has already happened. He says, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheek. You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. And yes, this has happened in David’s past, but he’s speaking of his situation confidently. Arise, save me, and I know you will.

And some people have a problem with Psalms like this, that speak with such violent language. They speak in a way that is just not proper for civilized people. I mean, who speaks this way? You’ve shattered the teeth of the wicked. You’ve struck him on the cheek. God, you’ve punched my enemies in the face before. Do it again.

And that makes it all the worse when you think about he’s speaking of his own son here. He’s speaking of his son. And David mourns when he hears of Absalom’s death. He doesn’t want his own son to die like this, and yet he asks God for it anyways. Because the reality is, in David’s situation, to be saved, God needs to eliminate his enemies. And you might think David sounds vengeful, that he’s saying, they’ve done this to me, God, take it out on them. But David’s not taking vengeance into his own hands here. He’s making a request of God. He’s asking God to deliver him. God needs to step up and intervene in the situation and do what God does, to take out the enemies of God’s people.

There can be no safety for David. There can be no restoring the kingdom to David unless his enemies are completely wiped out, eliminated. And again, David weeps when this does happen. But he asks for it nonetheless. For David to have salvation, God’s enemies must be destroyed. And he can have no security until that is the case. And you might think, well, that’s just those Old Testament people. They’re a little rough around the edges. I mean, God doesn’t work that way anymore. That was back then.

That’s not true because you find a very similar prayer in the New Testament in Revelation. As the martyrs cry out in Revelation 6. Verses 9 and 10, it says, and when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the witness which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long, oh master, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? That’s the prayer of the martyrs. God, avenge our blood. Pay back our enemies for what they did to us. An eye for an eye, right? Sometimes a head for a head, in their case.

It’s not a nice, touchy-feely prayer, but it recognized that if God’s servants are ever to be vindicated, those who crush God’s people need to be eliminated. And all this to say that sometimes, biblically speaking, salvation is messy business. It’s not all neat and tidy all the time. That’s what we read about in the Bible. And you can’t be afraid to read the messy parts of the Bible. Because that’s the God we serve. And what David is wanting here, when he asks for God to save him, is that he also confesses that salvation is God’s business.

The salvation David speaks of here is physical salvation. His life needs to be spared. And often when we think of salvation and we read of salvation in the Bible, we’re thinking something like justification or being brought into God’s kingdom, of trusting in Christ and coming to salvation. And often it is spoken of that way. But sometimes salvation needs to be physical. Sometimes salvation isn’t just spiritual. Here it speaks of physical deliverance. Sometimes the Bible speaks of salvation as God’s repeated acts for his people to spare their life. And there’s a sense in which God saves you again and again from troubles like this. And maybe some of you are facing situations like that now, where you need to be saved. Maybe it’s a medical diagnosis. Maybe it’s a health Scare. You cry out to God, save me. Even though I am saved spiritually, save me. Save my life. And that’s okay.

You can ask God for physical salvation. God’s salvation isn’t just a spiritual thing, although it is certainly that. But sometimes we need God to save us physically. Sometimes he steps in and saves us from the physical realities in life. And it is a very good and right thing to ask him to do that. And if it wasn’t, God wouldn’t give us Psalm 3.

And David says, your blessing be upon your people. This is a benediction from David. David, in the midst of this desperate, running for his life situation, where he’s crying out, God save me, save my life, he ends it with, and bless your people. Your blessing be upon your people. It’s as if David is saying, Lord, it’s not just my emergency, my fear and my enemies, but these things are normal for your people. And when you think through the history of the church, the situations that Christians have faced for millennia, they need to be saved physically. They cry out to God, save my life. And God may or may not answer in the way that we would prefer, but it’s okay to ask.

It’s all right to ask God for physical, life-saving salvation. And there are many of us who struggle with things that we would love to be saved from. Even though your spiritual salvation is secured, you can still struggle with depression, loneliness, anxiety, fear, things that can weigh you down and burden you and you just want to be saved from it. It’s okay to ask God to save you from those things too. In Psalm 55, 22, David says, cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. That’s exactly what we should be doing. Cast our burdens upon the Lord.

And that verse is picked up in the New Testament by Peter in 1 Peter 5:7, casting your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Just like David, we need to be bringing our fears and our worries and our anxieties, our troubles, whatever it may be. Bring them to the Lord. He cares for us. He wants to hear from us. And David says salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation is the Lord’s. The Lord who stepped into humanity, who put on human flesh, who gave his human life for sinners, so that all who believe in him would be saved. The one who physically provided salvation is the owner of salvation. Salvation belongs to him. It’s his business. So who else would you want to bring your burdens to than the one who owns salvation?

So when you’re faced with desperate and difficult circumstances, or when you’re just worn out from fear and worry and stress, you need to do like David does. Bring it to the Lord. Bring it to the one who owns salvation. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And as David told him of the enemies he faced, He reminds himself of the God he confesses, and he realizes the peace that he enjoys because of that. Then he asks God for help, and he expects it. He expects God to come through.

So like David, we need to trust him in our own circumstances. Trust God for deliverance. We all face trials and difficulties at different times. And God may or may not want to deliver us from those trials. But we have a God who cares for us and he wants us to come to him in those times.

Let’s stand if you are able this evening and close in a word of prayer. Our Father, God in heaven, we thank you for the way that you’ve revealed yourself to us. In a psalm like this that reveals the desperate circumstances that we as people face sometimes. As we see David’s heart poured out on these pages. I pray that we too, Lord, would come to you with our burdens. That when we need physical salvation, that we would cry out to you. that we would recognize that salvation belongs to you. I pray, Lord, that if there’s any here tonight that have not experienced salvation in the sense of trusting in Christ for salvation from their sins, that you would convict their hearts this evening, that you would bring them to yourself, that they would trust in Christ as their only Savior. We thank you for The ability we have to trust in you because of who you are, and we pray all of these things in Christ’s name, amen.