Psalms 3:1-2

As we look at Psalm 3, let me mention a couple of things here. To begin with, we are looking at a Psalm here of David’s, and we see the background of the Psalm in the preface here. It’s a Psalm that deals with troublous times for the psalmist. You know, bees undergo an interesting process to ensure their heads. healthy development, the queen bee lays each egg in a six-sided cell, and the cell is filled with honey and pollen for the baby bee to feed on, and it reaches a certain stage of maturity by eating that. It has enough food to reach that point. The top of the cell is sealed with wax. Now, the young bee has, when it’s exhausted, its supply of food. The time has come for the tiny creature to leave the cell, and it has to work its way through that wax membrane. And by working its way through there, it takes off a covering from its wings, because it has to work and struggle to get through that opening that it makes in the wax. Uncovers the wings, and the wings then are available for the bead fly. If the young bee could crawl out of the cell without any trouble or without any effort, it would be unable to fly. All its troubles benefit the bee. Believers also must undergo times of wrestling and straining with trials in life, or it’s through much tribulation we enter into the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. heaven. This Psalm, as I said, is the Psalm of David. The Psalm, Mismore, is the word for psalm here. It means a poem that’s sung with the accompaniment of an instrument. And in this Psalm, David pours out his troubles before the Lord. The preface of the Psalm is really the key that hangs over the door of this psalm and tells us, it unlocks the door for us and tells us what’s happening. What’s the background for this particular song? The historical setting. Now all these things are written for our learning and our benefit, and therefore, we must pay careful attention to it. It’s a psalm for public singing, therefore it benefits all the people of God. Now, there’s going to be great grief in your life. The background of this particular Psalm, if you would, let’s look at 2nd Samuel, chapter 15 a moment. Just read a portion of it, so we get a full grasp of what’s happening here. Let me begin with the first six verses of Psalm 15. It came to pass after this that Absalom, prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate, and it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said, of what city art thou? And he said, thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, see that thy matters. are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalon said, moreover, all that I were made judge in the land, that every man, which have 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, that he put forth his 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. Then picking up with verse 13. There came a messenger to David saying the hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. David sent unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem. let us flee. But we shall not else escape from Absalom, make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword. And the king’s servants said unto the king, behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint, and the king went forth, and all his household after him, and the king left ten women, which were cocky, to keep the house. And the king went forth all the people after him and tarried in a place that was far off. And then verses 30 and 31. David went up by the ascent of the Mount of all of that, of that, and went as he wept as he went up, and had his head covered. And he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered, covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. And one man told Absalom, saying, Hifrafel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of a Hithrafel into foolishness. And I’ll stop there at this point. When you get to chapter 16, we see that David is cursed by Shimei as he leaves. Absalom has a big, huge army, and the goal, of course, is to kill David and take his kingdom from him. When David was occupied with the affairs of the government, his son Absalom was busy stealing the hearts of the people. And then he raised this rebellion in a nearby town of Hebron, and David had to flee for his life. along the way we find this Benjaminite Shimiye who detest David and curses him. And so this psalm grimly captures the retreat here of David. So the substance of this Psalm is connected with David’s escape here and his being put to to flight. by Absalom. Now, let me ask you as we stop for a moment, why are there sorrows and troubles in this life? Why do these things occur? The king here is liable to tribulations, just as one of his own citizens would be. And the scripture says that man is born under trouble as the sparks fly upward. What do you think that means? What does it mean that man is born under trouble if the sparks flow? Yes. Okay. So it’s saying that trouble is just a normal, standard part of human life. And we have all kinds of trouble. We could talk about physical trouble. We could talk about spiritual troubles. We could talk about material and financial losses. We could talk about betrayal of friends. We can go on and on and on. There’s all kinds of things that have. happened to us in this life. Some of our sorrows are so great that they’ll bring us to tears, just as David has found weeping in this section of scripture in 2nd Samuel 15. So your world can be turned upside down by all the troubles you have. But why does God bring these things into our life? Let me give you a verse from Ecclesiastes, and perhaps this will be of help. Chapter 7, verse 14. In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider. God also has set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him. What do you think that means? What is Solomon telling us here, actually God telling us through Solomon, in this verse of scripture? What do you think it means that man should find nothing after him? So here you are. You go through life. Some days are good. Some days are bad. And the Bible says that God is the one who has set one day against the others. You’ll have some good days. You’re going to have some bad days. But what is the ultimate purpose of all this? Ultimately, yes. But what is this to teach us about this life? Do you think? Yes. Yeah, God, God is, because of man’s fall and sin, this life is tainting with all kinds of misery. And God would not have us to be too comfortable in this life that we would think this is great. He would teach us that we should long for something better. And so he sets the adversity against the good days. that we have. Another reason why there’s sorrow in this life is Ecclesiastity 7.3. Sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. And what this tells us is that in sorrow, there is some spiritual benefit to be gained. I think that’s what Raina was mentioning when it was for our good. There’s something to be gained in all the trouble. that come our way. Now what was the source of David’s trouble? His son’s son, Absalom rebels against him, but the background of this is it is God chastening him for his sin with Bashir. So here we see the response of God in later, you know, several years of God of gone by before this occurs. But it comes from his own family. The sword doesn’t part from his house. And it is a chastening. And the lesson here that we can learn as we look at this is that we can cause our own troubles. We, you know, we bring trouble into our own life by our sinfulness. And David would have to admit that his sinfulness caused this. this trouble to come upon him. Now, why should you seek to know the cause of your affliction, and why is that beneficial to you? Yes, Russell. We should always examine ourselves to see whether the Lord is chastening us. You know, whom the Lord loveth, he chastenedeth, and he scourges every son that he receiveth, and no chastening for the present is joyous. according to the scriptures in the book of Hebrew. Hebrews. You know, Job is the one that once asked, show me wherefore thou contendous with me. He didn’t understand what was the troubles in his life. Because even God said that he was a perfect and upright man. He walked faithfully with the Lord. David didn’t have much trouble. understanding why the problem came up. You and I may not always know what the problem is. Sometimes it could be because it is divine chastening, but we need to do a thorough examination when any trouble comes up in our life. We can’t repent too frequently or too humbly for our sins. Psalm 51 is David’s Psalm of repentance. for this particular sin. What does this Psalm indicate to you about even forgiven sin? Well, chasten us for it because the chastening was never judgment in the first place. It always is fatherly rooting sin out of our lives. It’s a cold. So since it comes to us not for a judicial reason in the first place, that’s forgiven doesn’t mean that we can’t still have some sort of a suffering or chastening in our lives. Right. There’s a different. between judgment and wrath and a fatherly chastening to correct our ways to help us to learn things from it. So there can be consequences that remain. Even though Nathan said, the Lord hath forgiven you of your sin, you shall not die. Yet, because of what you did, the sword’s not going to depart from out. There will be a chaste. and we certainly can learn that from this particular psalm here as we look at the preface here and we see the background of the psalm. Now, let’s look at verse one here. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me? You know, a rebellion for a king is a very serious matter. I mean, someone’s trying to take over his king. kingdom and in this case it’s his own son and the whole goal of this is to kill him remember how hithrafell said let me take a you know a group of men i’ll pursue him and i’ll just kill david and we’ll wait we’ll put this this whole thing behind us just like that it’ll be over in no time i’ll get him tonight what bothers david here and he seems to look at this as a he’s perplexed and amazed so many people could turn against him for absalom had the the large army and a lot of heathra even his close counselor has turned against him he sees no limit to the misery for his troubles they seem to enlarge by the hour so he says many they’re too great for me to number are against me you remember how when david’s men went into battle with uh Absalom’s men they said you’re not going you’re staying behind because all they’ll do is kill you if they kill you this it ends we’re not going to let that happen so they wouldn’t even let David go he said we’re you know you’re worth 10,000 of us you’re not you’re not going so he’s kept out of it now you and I are not likely unless we’re in the military to face this type of you know warfare and conflict where our life would be in physical danger of this nature but what are the what are the daily dangers that we as the people of God face what are those who are the many who may trouble us any thoughts on that what are this go ahead we sometimes do have we have warfare ours is the spiritual warfare but it’s there are many who are going to there are many things that are going to attack us And the world, the flesh, and the devil are the three main adversaries that we have. And every day, they’re out to harm us. They’re out to do us in. And so it’s not as if we don’t have many that will trouble us as we go through this life. The world hates the Christian. As you go through this life and you’re at work or wherever you are, you’re going to find that because of your faith, people may like you as a person when they first meet you and then when they find out what you believe that seems to get them upset. And so we have to realize as we go through this life that Christian is not one who is welcomed by the world because we are out of step with the world. And so we have to be careful as we go through this life and realize there are many. Jesus said that a man’s foe shall be of his own household in Matthew 1037. It’s not uncommon, excuse me. It’s not uncommon for a husband or wife to turn against their mate. It’s not uncommon for children to turn against their parents and so forth. Relatives to turn against you because of your faith. And so forth. if you look at it, there’s a lot more people in the world than there are in the church. So you’ve got to face these kinds of spiritual dangers, and there are going to be many that will trouble us. And then verse 2, he says this. Many there be, which save my soul, there is no help for him in God. Celia. What are the people saying here about David? What do you think they’re indicating to David? There’s one or two things. Yes. I can pay grain at this time first. It doesn’t think it’s not a lot of power. Okay. God can’t help you. He’s unable to help you. What else could… The other is that they think God’s on their side. Not yours. God has abandoned you. Yes. Okay. So I think those two ideas could come out of this text of scripture. What is the worst one of those two? Yeah, he’s abandoning. It’s one thing to say, well, God can’t help. God, God’s not going to help you, as if God is unable to do so. That would be good, because if that occurs we can say, well, God, see what they’re saying about you? you can’t do this. We can use this as ammunition in a way. we’re going to say, Lord, hear what they’re saying. Do you remember when Hezekiah was surrounded, the Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrian army? And what did the Assyrians say? Don’t think that God, your God, Jehovah is going to be able to help you. He’s not going to be able to save you. And what does Hezekiah do? He takes the letter, you know, he lays it out before the Lord says, look at their saying here, as if you’re no God at all, but all those other gods from all those other nations, they were nothing. you’re the true God and what does God do? He says to the death angel and kills 185,000, you know, Assyrians. And so when the Israelites wake up the next morning, there’s all these dead bodies. God’s unable to help you. Oh, really? So this is, you know, this isn’t so bad. We can live with that. We can live with people saying, you know, God’s nothing. He can’t help you. I can’t live with. God has abandoned you. God won’t help you. that would be a very serious thing for some on the face. You know, Job had his friends come, and basically they’re saying, is you must have done something really bad. God has abandoned, that’s why all this has happened to you, is troublesome. That is enough to really get you depressed and upset. And so as we go through this life, we would prefer the second, not the first one. Now, it’s interesting, he uses the word CELA at the end of verse 2. Does anybody know what that, what is that? What’s that CELA mean? It’s a musical pause, but it’s for the purpose of, think about this. Somebody has said, God has abandoned you. This is a pretty serious statement to make. So he would have us think about that a moment, to ponder that. The music pauses for a second here. For us to ponder, reflect on this matter of being abandoned by God. That’s a pretty, that’s about as serious as you can get when you look at this situation. And so here are the two things that I see are coming out of this. and so we see the situation that he’s in. If I stopped at this point, and we could stop at this point and say, well, this is all useful to us. We ponder this with regard to David and his life, I would be not doing you, I think, enough spiritual benefit. We should realize that this Psalm is for public worship. It cannot merely be about David’s struggles, for that in itself is unworthy to be part of divine worship. We have to see beyond David here. We have to see David as a type of Christ. We have to see that he’s talking ultimately here about Christ. And this is what I find more difficult cult in a lot of things as we sing the Psalms. We have to look beyond just David and look to him as a prophet as Peter tells us in Acts chapter 2, who speaks of Christ. How might this Psalm relate to the son of David, Jesus Christ? Let me ask you this. How did Christ face a rebellious Israel as the king of the Jews. He came unto his own, John tells us, in his gospel and what? His own received him not. Yes. What does that sound like to you? Verse 2. Sounds like verse 2. God has abandoned you. Right? Or God can’t help you, one or the other. I think more maybe the abandonment aspect. Now we begin to see if we start putting these little pieces together, we begin to see how this could be a portrayal of Christ. What enemies rose up against Christ? Remember, there were those who were singing Josea to Christ as the coming king and his triumphal entry. And yet later, we have the nation crying out, we have no king but Caesar, crucified. And so many rose up against him. Look at all the people when he was on the cross that mocked him and ridiculed him and surrounded him, as Psalm 22 talks about, gaping on him, stirred up by the scribes and the Pharisees and religious leaders. Look at all the opposition that he faced. How was Christ’s greatest suffering due to sin? But we could put that, we could look at the situation that he is suffering, because of sin. This case, this is judicial. And David’s, we said, was chastening because Christ has already taken care of the judicial aspect. But he’s suffering because sin, right? So we put these ideas together. We begin to see how this Psalm can take us beyond David, and therefore when we worship and we sing this Psalm, We need to see beyond David. We need to see there’s something to be said about Christ in this Psalm. So I suggest as we look at this Psalm together, that it will be of use to us if we do it this way. Because if it’s speaking about Christ, its value has raised a thousand fold over just David as an ordinary believer or even a special believer as one that’s been raised up. as king of Israel. We have a king too. He too suffered. He too went to the Mount of Olives weeping. He too had one of his close companions betray him. It wasn’t a Hithrafel, but it certainly was Judas. As you begin to put all this together, you can begin to see the value of this. So I hope that as we look here, I can do just with this idea and try to bring this out. Well, there’s things to learn for ourselves from David. Let’s try to see if there’s something beyond that. And so when we sing the Psalms, we look beyond David and the writers of the Psalms. Let’s see the Savior, who is worthy of worship, who elevates the value of this Psalm to us. And therefore, we see. it in public. Any other thoughts on this as I close this study? Just to reemphasize what you were saying. Yes. Yeah. He didn’t have anybody bringing him food and supplies and things like that to help him out. And so he really, in a way, stood alone. John came back and his mother. and some of the women, but what could they do? He really had to bear it alone. And that’s, that is a difficult thing to do. So that’s what I have this morning for you, and hopefully I’d spend a couple weeks looking at this. Hopefully it would be a lot.