Dwell in the Word: Psalm 3
Consider these questions as you dwell in Psalm 3 today:
1. How does David's unwavering trust in God's promises and character serve as a model for us when facing adversity and doubt in our own lives?
2. In what ways does David's proclamation that "Salvation belongs to the Lord" challenge our tendency to rely on our own strength and self-sufficiency? How can we cultivate a deeper reliance on God for our deliverance?
3. How does the imagery of God as a shield and the lifter of our heads resonate with our experiences of finding refuge and strength in Him? How can we apply this metaphor in our daily lives to navigate challenges and adversity?
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Transcript:
As we come now to Psalm chapter three, we are getting a little bit different taste than we had in Psalm one and two. In the first Psalm, we saw that there was the blessed one, and we saw how that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we saw the futility of opposing the anointed one of God. Now we are seeing that David is experiencing some very difficult situations, and he is calling out to God. We see here in the notes that this Psalm is about when David fled from Absalom. Well, that was a terrible situation. There was a lot of bad things going on in the life of David there, but what is his strength? What is he looking to? He is not looking to himself. He is seeing all that is going on around him, and he is realizing his hope is in God. And in fact, as we read this chapter, we see that there are so many foes that are coming after him, and they're scoffing him. They're saying there's no salvation for him and God. The idea here is that God does not seem to be on his side, that there is an opposition to David, and so he must not be the anointed one of God.
He must not be the King that is meant to be the one that is from God. But David doesn't believe what his foes are saying. Instead, he trusts in what the Lord has said about him, and he also trusts in who God is. We see this with verse 3, right? But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. God is the one who rescues. We see this all throughout scripture. Despite the fact that we try to win victory on our own, despite the fact that we try to save ourselves, God is our shield. He is the lifter of our heads. We can't do this on our own. And verse 5 helps us see how David relied on God. We read that he laid down, he slept, he woke again, for the Lord sustained him. He is able to remain because God was his protector. And it's amazing here that David laid down and he slept despite everything that was going on around him, he found a way to sleep. He trusted in God. And so what does that result in? That he is able to trust in God's sovereignty, in God's protection, and to trust him at His Word?
He says, I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. In other words, no matter how many people come up against me, I'm going to trust you, O Lord. I will trust the one who truly has power, the one who truly is my salvation. And so he calls out. He asks God to arise and to save him. And verse 7 has some interesting language here. This is the most forceful language that we've really seen in the first three Psalms, right? For you strike on my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Now, you think about being struck on the face and having your teeth broken, and that is just overpowering. And it shows who is in charge. And we see with verse 8 that David knows this. He understands that salvation belongs to the Lord, your blessing beyond your people. He understands that God will protect His King, His Anointed One. He will protect His people that He wins ultimate victory. He has power. He is able to break the teeth of the wicked. And so for us, as we continue to think about how Christ unlocks the Psalms, we are able to pray this and see this in our lives because we are in Christ.
Now, we do not have the power to do these types of things on our own. We cannot save ourselves. We are not able to say, Hey, we are going to overpower because of what God did. This is not ours to judge, it's not ours to do. It is for us to lie down, to sleep, to trust in who God is and say that salvation belongs to the Lord. Again, because we are in Christ, we can know that no matter what happens in our lives, no matter what difficulties we face, we can know that we have victory because Christ has won victory over sin, death, and hell. We know this to be true. And so we can lie down each day and we can sleep and we can rest. We can wake again and know that that is the Lord who sustains us. We can know that we do not need to be afraid of many thousands of people, but we have Christ and we can trust that regardless of the circumstances of our lives, we have salvation in our God because salvation belongs to the Lord. And we see this in the truth of Christ victory for us.
