Latest / Reformed Thinking / Outnumbered but Unshaken: God Our Shield in Trouble (Psalm 3) | John Calvin

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Outnumbered but Unshaken: God Our Shield in Trouble (Psalm 3) | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine you are, you know, the most influential person in your
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entire nation. You've spent decades building
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this massive legacy. Yeah, you've got armies at your
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disposal. Right.
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Armies, wealth, status, what seems like absolute security.
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But tonight you weren't sleeping in a palace.
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Tonight you are sleeping in the dirt.
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Out in the wilderness. Out in the wilderness you are
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running for your life. And the most agonizing part, I
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think, is that you are not running from an invading empire
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or like a foreign rival. You are running from your own
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child. Your own son.
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Your own son is actively hunting you, and he has convinced almost
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your entire nation to help him do it.
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It's a staggering scenario. Really.
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It really is. Well, welcome to Reformed
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thinking today. Our mission for this deep dive
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is a comprehensive verse by verse theological analysis of
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Psalm 3. And to give you the proper
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context, we had to paint that very visceral picture of the
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historical setting I just described.
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Because we are looking at King David.
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Right King David. The sheer bitter sorrow of this
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domestic betrayal is the backdrop for everything we are
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going to talk about today. It sets up our central theme,
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which is how a person handles absolute despair, mockery and
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the very real threat of death by relying on divine promises.
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It's a heavy topic. Very heavy.
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Joining me today to make sense of this is our resident
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analytical voice who is going to help unpack the theology and the
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history behind this text. We're going to look closely at
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the mechanics of this affliction, the psychological
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warfare of the enemies, and the actual miracle of finding rest
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in the middle of a literal manhunt.
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Because, I mean, you have the anointed king of Israel reduced
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to hiding in caves and ravines. He's facing an unanticipated
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rebellion from his own flesh and blood, Absalom.
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The betrayal is just so intimate.
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It's not just political. No, it's personal.
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Highly. Personal.
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OK. Let's unpack this.
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We have to start with the root cause of David's affliction.
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David has been dethroned. He's forsaken by almost
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everyone. He's basically got nothing left.
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Right. He has only a handful of
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faithful friends, relying on whatever hiding places he can
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find in the duty and wilderness just to escape this sudden
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massive disaster. But this isn't just a story of
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bad luck or the poor political strategy, is it?
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Not at all. I mean, we really can't look at
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this disaster as a simple political failing on David's
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part. The theological root of this
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affliction is what makes the situation so agonizing.
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David recognizes that this rebellion is a direct
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chastisement from God. It's for his own prior sins.
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The. History there is pretty dark.
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Yeah, specifically, the historical record points to his
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guilt into filing another man's wife, Bathsheba, and shedding
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the innocent blood of her husband, Uriah.
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Let's linger on that for a second, because the
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psychological weight of that realization is just It's
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staggering. He is looking at his son leading
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an army against him, and he knows I brought this upon
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myself. This is the consequence of my
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own treachery. If I am in that situation, I'm
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crushed. I mean the knowledge that my own
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moral failure created the environment for this rebellion
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that would make me sink into absolute despair.
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Oh, totally. I'd be entirely overwhelmed with
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anguish. And that's the natural human
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reaction, right? When God makes use of wicked and
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mischievous men as scourges to chastise us.
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It forces A reckoning. You are face to face with your
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own guilt. But there is a crucial detail
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here. David makes no allusion to his
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own sins in this specific Psalm. Wait, really?
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None at all. None.
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We can infer from this silence that Psalm 3 only comprises one
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part of his prayers, since God punished him expressly for his
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adultery and his treachery toward Uriah.
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There's no doubt David was initially distressed with, you
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know, grievous and dreadful torments of mine.
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Sure, he had to process the fact that the sword was never going
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to depart from his house. Right.
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But Psalm 3 catches him. After that initial agonizing
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torment, he has moved past the initial shock of the discipline.
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I have to push back here though, or at least I want to voice the
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question that immediately comes to mind for anyone listening.
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OK, go for it. If David knows he brought this
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upon himself, and if he knows he's being actively disciplined
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by God, why doesn't he just throw his hands up and
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surrender? That's a very fair question.
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I mean, how does a person find comfort in the very authority
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that is currently actively punishing them?
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If God raised up this scourge, if God allowed Absalom to rebel
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as a form of discipline, isn't crying out to God to stop it
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completely contradictory? That question gets right to the
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core of the reform perspective on discipline.
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Acknowledging that we suffer nothing which we do not deserve
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is a mechanism that leads to repentance, not despair.
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OK, so separating the two. Yes, we have to separate those
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two concepts. Despair says.
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I am condemned, God has abandoned me, and this
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punishment is my final destruction.
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Right, it's hopeless. But repentance says I am guilty
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and I deserve this discipline. But the judge is also my
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Redeemer. God's use of wicked men as
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scourges does not negate God's overarching grace toward His
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children. So you are saying David views
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this as fatherly discipline rather than final condemnation?
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Precisely after David humbled himself before God regarding the
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whole Uriah situation, he took courage, Being well assured of
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having obtained forgiveness for his soul, he was fully persuaded
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that God was still on his side. The discipline is real, the
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consequences are real, but his standing as an adopted child of
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God remains intact. That is such a fascinating
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mental shift. He knows the chastisement is
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painful, but he also knows the forgiveness is complete.
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He knew God would always preside over his Kingdom and show
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himself its protector even while administering discipline, so he
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can still complain to God about his son and the whole faction
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involved in the conspiracy. Because he knows Absalom and the
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rebels wickedly rose up for the purpose of frustrating the
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decree of God. Right.
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They aren't acting as righteous agents of justice.
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No, they're acting as treasonous rebels, and that is a vital
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distinction. The enemies are fighting against
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God rather than just against David, even though God is
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allowing it for David's discipline.
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Absalom's intent is to overthrow God's anointed king.
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So the instruction for us is clear.
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If our enemies, in persecuting US, fight against God, let the
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consideration of their doing so be immediately followed by the
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confident persuasion of our safety under His protection.
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The rebels are despising and trampling under foot the grace
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that God has promised David. Spot on.
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Thinking about you listening to this, it is incredibly easy to
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relate this to the everyday realities of facing
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consequences. Oh, absolutely.
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When we make a mistake, when we 'cause our own disasters, maybe
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a financial ruin, a broken relationship, a career set back,
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it's so easy to sink into that anguish.
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We think our failure disqualifies us from divine help
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forever. We think we're done.
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Right, We think I made my bed, now I have to lie in it and God
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is just going to watch me suffer.
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But David's response models a radically different reaction.
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He accepts the discipline, humbles himself, and then boldly
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asks for help from the very God who is disciplining him.
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Because he understands the difference between punitive
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wrath intended to destroy and fatherly correction intended to
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refine. And that brings us directly into
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the text of the Psalm itself, Looking at verses 1 and 2.
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Let's hear it, David writes, Oh Lord, how are my oppressors
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multiplied? Many rise up against me.
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Many say to my soul, there is no help for him in God.
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The sheer volume of opposition is staggering.
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I mean, the sacred history from Second Samuel tells us he had
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nearly as many enemies as he had subjects.
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The whole nation seemed to turn on a dime.
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Literally overnight he's terrified by the massive numbers
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opposed to him. Nothing could have taken place
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more unlooked for than so sudden a rebellion.
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One day he is holding court, the next day he's fleeing out the
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back gate of Jerusalem. What's fascinating here is the
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specific nature of the taunt they hurl at him.
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There is no help for him in God. Yeah, that hurts.
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It does. They aren't just commenting on
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his tactical disadvantage. They aren't just saying David is
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out of troops or David is out of money.
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They're making a theological declaration.
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When we analyze the mindset of this ungodly faction, we see
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that Absalon, his followers, are not relying on divine favor at
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all. They place all their hope in
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their own strength, their own political maneuvering, and their
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own fortune. They view David as a castaway,
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like completely rejected by heaven.
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The assumption is that because David is suffering, God must
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hate him. That's how they see it.
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Their boldness actually increased because they were
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confident he had been rejected by God.
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It's a very human way of looking at circumstances though.
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If you are losing, God must be against you.
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And there is an indirect reference to their ungodliness
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here. They made no account of the help
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of God in preserving the king whom he had chosen.
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Absalom entirely disregards God, hoping for victory purely from
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his own resources and his stolen popularity.
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David explicitly introduces both Absalom and the rest of the
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faction, speaking this way to demonstrate a monstrous and
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outrageous contempt of God. The presumption is just
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monstrous. The enemies assume that success
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is strictly proportionate to physical numbers.
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They act as if God's favor is totally irrelevant to the
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outcome of earthly battles. Yeah, they figure.
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We have the numbers. We had the momentum, we had the
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capital city. Therefore, we win.
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It's essentially atheism in practice, even if they wouldn't
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use that word themselves. They might still participate in
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religious rituals, but functionally they believe the
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physical world is all that matters.
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Well, the ungodly might not always openly break forth into
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daring presumption, stating out loud that it's impossible for us
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to derive any advantage from God's favor, But they ascribe
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everything to fortune. They hold the firm opinion that
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a man's success will be in proportion to his physical
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strength, his wealth, or his social connections.
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Therefore, they fearlessly rush forward to gain their object by
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all means right or wrong, as if it would be equally the same
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whether God is angry with them or favorable towards them.
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They simply don't factor God into their equations at.
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All not even a little bit. It's so relatable to modern
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cynicism. You see this all the time today
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in business and politics, even in our personal lives.
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The world often mocks believers by reducing all success to mere
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statistics, to luck to the algorithm, or just raw brute
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effort. Oh for sure, everything is a
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metric. Right.
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They completely discard the invisible variable of divine
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Providence. They look at a situation and say
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the math doesn't support your survival.
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Your startup is going to fail. Your diagnosis is terminal.
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Your reputation is ruined. Yeah, just look at the
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spreadsheets. They mock the faithful as if it
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would avail them nothing to be under the care and protection of
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God. They rely entirely, entirely on
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those spreadsheets. And that mockery isn't just
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background noise either. It is a targeted psychological
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attack. It is designed to break the
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spirit before the physical battle even begins.
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Which brings us to a very specific, highly significant
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linguistic detail in the Hebrew phrasing David uses to describe
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his pain. Right, let's look at that.
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There is a fascinating translation debate regarding the
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Hebrew here. The phrase is often debated
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between many say to my soul versus many say of my soul.
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When we look at the original language, the letter lamed in
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Hebrew can sometimes be used to mean of or concerning right?
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Yeah, it can. Some translators prefer many say
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of My soul, meaning they were talking about David behind his
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back. But a deeper analysis argues
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that this doesn't give the true intended meaning of the passage.
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David intended to express something much more intimate and
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devastating. He says his heart was in a
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manner pierced with the mockery of his enemies.
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That is such a vivid, painful phrase pierced with mockery.
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It's not just gossip, it's a weapon.
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The word soul here signifies the seat of the affections, the very
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core of a person's being. So when they say this to his
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soul, the mockery is striking David directly in his heart.
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It's an internal wound. Yes, it is the kind of insult
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that bypasses your intellectual defenses and settles right in
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your chest. It corresponds to a passage in
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Psalm 35 where David asks God to say to my soul, I am thy
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salvation. The soul is the receiver of the
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message. That makes a lot of sense.
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The ungodly use their endeavors to destroy our souls with
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despair, so we ought to defend them by our prayers.
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Instead of listening to the whole world attempting to drive
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us to hopelessness, we ought to give ear to God alone.
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It's an act of defense against a psychological assault, and you
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can imagine the sheer volume of that assault.
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He's not just hearing one critic, he's hearing many.
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Thousands of them. The echoes of a whole nation
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saying God is done with you. And right after this piercing
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insult, Right at the peak of the 10, we had a word that often
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confuses people reading the psalms, Salah.
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We see it all the time, but what is it actually doing there?
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Interpreters are not entirely agree on Salah.
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Some maintain it's a mark of affirmation, having the same
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signification as truly or Amen. Others understand it as meaning
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forever. But the reformed analytical
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tradition often sides with a different derivation, right?
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Something related to the music itself.
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Correct. We look at the root word Salah
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which signifies to lift up. So the strongest conclusion is
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that it denotes the lifting up of the voice in harmony in the
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exercise of singing. It is a musical notation.
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I find this detail absolutely brilliant.
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It tells us that the music was adapted to the sentiment of the
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song. The harmony was in unison with
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the character or subject matter of the lyrics.
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Exactly. I mean, that's right.
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David has just complained about his enemies, shamefully laughing
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to scorn his hope, as if God's protection would be of no avail
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to him. He states the most painful thing
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a believer could hear. God is A and in you and then he
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uses this word silla. He uses it to deliberately fix
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the listeners attention on this horrific blasphemy.
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It is a musical direction that forces the audience to pause, to
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lift up their voices, or perhaps for the instruments to swell.
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Yeah, to really feel it to. Truly feel the weight of the
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insult that so severely wounded his heart before moving on.
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It is an intentional structural technique.
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He doesn't just want you to read the insult and rush to the happy
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ending. He wants you to sit with the
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agony of it. He wants you to feel the
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piercing of the soul. It makes the text so much more 3
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dimensional. You can almost hear the choir
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pausing, the music swelling, highlighting the absolute
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desolation of a man whose own son is telling him God has
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abandoned him. It's a very traumatic.
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Moment it forces you to stop and ask yourself, what would I do if
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everyone I knew said God was finished with me?
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But then we hit verses 3 and four and the tone completely
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shifts, The music changes. But thou, Jehovah, are to shield
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for me, my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
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The linguistic pivot here is critical, the Hebrew copulative
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and is best resolved as the disjunctive particle but.
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That's a big shift. This changes everything.
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David employs language full of confidence, standing a direct
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opposition to the hardihood and profane scoffings of his
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enemies. He testifies that whatever they
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may say, whatever the statistics look like, he will nevertheless
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rely upon the Word of God. And this reveals a massive shift
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in his legal and spiritual defense.
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Remember earlier we talked about his past sins with Uriah and
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Bathsheba? He knew he deserved
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chastisement. He knew he was a flawed man.
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Yes, very flawed. But here he makes no mention of
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his present calamity as a chastisement.
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Why? Because having acknowledged his
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sin before God, having repented and received assurance of
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forgiveness, he now takes into consideration only the merits of
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the present 'cause. That phrase, the merits of the
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present cause, is essential to understand.
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Absalom's war is ungodly, the rebels intended to pose a true
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and lawful king from his throne, a king placed there by God's
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decree. David has mourned his own sins.
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He has humbly betaken himself to the mercy of God, and now he
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keeps his eyes fixed on the obvious and immediate cause of
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his afflictions. He can confidently expect God to
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defend the royal dignity conferred upon him.
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Wait, let me press on that because I want to make sure I
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understand the mechanics of this.
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If he is currently being punished for Uriah, how can he
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simultaneously claim that his present cause is righteous?
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It's a bit of a paradox, isn't it?
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Yeah, how can he say God protect my throne when God is the one
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shaking the throne? Because the discipline of God
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does not validate the sin of the instrument God uses, Absalom is
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committing treason. Absalom is violating the 5th
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Commandment to honor His Father and the commandment against
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murder, and he is rebelling against God's anointed
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structure. OK, I see.
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David is saying, Lord, I am a Sinner and I accept your
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discipline, but Absalom is attacking your established
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throne on the merits of this specific war.
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I am in the right and he is in the wrong.
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Therefore, I appeal to your justice.
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That is such a vital lesson for anyone dealing with opposition
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or conflict. You can acknowledge your past
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failures, but that does not mean every attack against you is
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righteous. No, not at all.
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It doesn't mean you have to lay down and let people destroy you
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just because you have a flawed past.
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Especially when the truth of God is opposed through our being
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mistreated, we ought to be greatly encouraged.
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We can glory in the assurance that God will maintain the truth
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of His own promises against perfidious and abandoned
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characters. If David believed his past sin
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completely cut him off from God's favor, he would have
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groundlessly claimed these promises.
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He would have stayed silent, but he is fully persuaded he has not
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cut off. Right, he speaks up.
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So he compares God to a shield, meaning he's defended by God's
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might. He concludes God is his glory
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because God will be the maintainer and defender of his
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royal dignity even when his earthly dignity has been
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stripped away. And because of that, he says he
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will walk with an unabashed brow.
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He that exalteth my head. Which brings us to verse 4.
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I have cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of
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his holy hill. Here's where it gets really
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interesting. OK, what do you see?
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I want to look closely at the phrasing David specifically says
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with my voice. He does not say I thought about
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God or I felt sad in my spirit. He uses his physical voice.
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He distinctly mentions his voice to express that however much the
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ungodly might Rage Against him, he was by no means struck dumb.
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He pronounced in a loud and distinct voice the name of his
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God. Out loud.
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Yes, out loud. Doing this was a highly
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difficult matter. Under such a grievous and severe
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temptation. When everyone is telling you God
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has abandoned you, the hardest thing to do is to speak out loud
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to Him. There's a great analogy used in
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historical commentary here. It says nothing is more
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unbecoming than sullenly to gnaw the bit with which we are
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bridled, withholding our groaning from God.
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I like that. I think about a stubborn horse.
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If you put a metal bit in a horse's mouth and it doesn't
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want to go where you were directing it, it will just
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silently, angrily chew on that metal.
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It resists. It stews in its own frustration,
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but it doesn't communicate. It just gnaws the bit.
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Just sits there and stews. David does not do that.
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He does not give way to passionate confusion, and he
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doesn't just sit in The Cave stewing in internal anxiety.
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He opposes the voice of prayer to the tumultuous outcries of
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his enemies. Consider the contrast.
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Those who curse their luck or blame fortune or sit in sullen
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silence are just pouring out in moderate sorrow.
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They're trapped in their own heads.
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Yes, spiraling. But David lifts up his voice to
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God, the very God the ungodly imagined had become his enemy.
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He actively speaks out loud to break the loop of anxiety.
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We actually know from modern psychology that vocalizing a
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thought engages a different part of the brain than just thinking.
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It that makes total sense. When you are spiraling in
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anxiety, speaking truth out loud physically disrupts the panic.
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David is doing this. It is a deliberate act of
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resistance. And he adds that he cried not in
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vain, to encourage all the godly dissimilar constancy.
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He wants us to know that vocal, deliberate prayer works.
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And we must look at where God hears him from, Four says.
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He heard me out of his holy hill.
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Now, geographically, this is rich with irony.
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We need to look at a map. David is hiding in the
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wilderness. He has crossed the Kidron
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Valley, he has gone over the Mount of Olives and he is out in
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the desolate areas. Miles away.
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He is miles and miles away from Mount Zion, from the physical
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center of worship. He is far from the Tabernacle.
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Some interpreters improperly explain the hill of His Holiness
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as referring to heaven, while heaven is often called God's
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holy palace. Here David doubtless has a
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reference to the Ark of the Covenant, which at that time
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stood on Mount Zion, and he expressly affirms that he was
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heard from thence, even though he had been compelled to flee
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into the wilderness. We have to bring in a brilliant
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historical cross reference here from Second Samuel chapter 15
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because it explains perfectly why he mentions the Holy Hill.
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When David was fleeing Jerusalem, the priests,
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including Abathar, commanded the Levites to carry the Ark of the
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Covenant with the fleeing king. They brought it right to him.
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They brought the ultimate sacred object, the literal symbol of
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God's presence, out of the city to go with him into exile.
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It makes sense, right? If you're going to war, you want
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the ultimate advantage. And David refused.
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He sent it back. He sent it back to Jerusalem.
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The wonderful faith of the holy man appears conspicuous here.
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He knew the Lord had chosen Zion to be the dwelling place of the
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ark. He was willing to be torn from
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that sacred symbol of the divine presence which the historical
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account tells us was as painful to him as if his own bowels had
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been torn from him. Rather than make any innovation
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not sanctioned by the will of heaven, wow, He refused to
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manipulate God's prescribed worship for his own comfort.
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He chose obedience over the comfort of a physical relic.
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He could have treated the Ark like a lucky rabbit's foot.
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He could have thought As long as I have the gold box I win.
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But he keeps a dew medium, a metal path.
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He avoided 2 massive extremes that religious people often fall
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into. On one hand, he did not despise
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the visible sign which the Lord had appointed on account of the
21:54
rudeness of the times. He didn't see the ark was
21:57
worthless. On the other hand, he did not
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attach a superstitious value to a particular physical place, nor
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did he entertain carnal, fleshly conceptions of the glory of God.
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He didn't believe God was trapped in the box.
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That concept of the doom medium is so helpful.
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He respects the physical symbol, but his faith is in the God
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behind the symbol. The contrast with how
22:19
unbelievers prey is striking. Unbelievers often scatter words
22:23
into the air, vanishing into nothing, because they are in
22:27
doubt to what place they ought to direct their speech.
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They don't know who they are talking to.
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Exactly. They just send good vibes out
22:34
into the universe, hoping some undefined energy hears them.
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But David turned himself directly toward the Tabernacle.
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Why? Because of the promise attached
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to it. He knew God was near him despite
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the physical distance. He directed his faith toward the
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Tabernacle, whence God had promised to be merciful to His
22:51
servants. God said, I will meet with you
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above the mercy seat. So David directs his faith
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there, hence the confidence with which he prayed.
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And we can connect this seamlessly to the modern
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Christian experience, can't we? We certainly can in our days,
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since there is fulfilled in Christ what was formerly
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shadowed forth by the figures of the Law.
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A much easier way of approach to God is opened up for us,
23:12
provided we do not knowingly and willingly wander from the Way
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Christ is. The reality that the physical
23:19
arc only pointed toward Christ is the meeting place between God
23:23
and man. Which means we have even less
23:25
excuse to scatter our words into the empty air.
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We don't have to face Mount Zion when we pray.
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We have a direct, mediated line of communication through Christ.
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We can speak directly to the throne room.
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That's right. And the result of that
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communication for David is perhaps the most shocking part
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of this entire text. We move to verses 5 and 6.
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David says I laid me down and slept.
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I awaked for the Lord sustained me.
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I will not be afraid of 10 thousands of people that have
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set themselves against me around about.
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There is a brief linguistic note here that we should clarify.
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According to Hebrew usage, past tense verbs like I laid me down
24:00
and slept sometimes be taken For the future.
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I will lie down and sleep. OK.
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So there's a debate on the timing.
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Yes, some think there is a change of tenses because a
24:09
future verb follows it in the next verse.
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But it is much better to retain the past tense, expressing a
24:15
continuous act and an already experienced reality.
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He has already experienced this rest.
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I laid me down and slept. Think about the context we
24:24
established at the beginning. 10s of thousands of armed troops
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are hunting him. His own son wants him dead.
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He is sleeping on the ground in the wilderness.
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The adrenaline alone should keep him awake for days.
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And yet he sleeps. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture of human Physiology and psychology, it is an absolute
24:42
miracle. David expresses a wonderful and
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almost incredible steadfastness of mind in that he slept so
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soundly in the midst of many deaths, as if he had been
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entirely beyond the reach of all danger.
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It's hard to even fathom. He'd been tossed amidst
24:56
merciless waves of anxiety, the grief of a father, the terror of
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a king, but their violence was allayed by means of faith.
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We have to make a careful distinction, though, because
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people might misunderstand this. This is not the sleep of
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stupidity. Right.
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It is not apathy, it is not someone who just doesn't
25:10
understand the gravity of the situation, and it is not the
25:13
fastest sleep intoxication of the wicked who falsely dream
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they have made a covenant with death.
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Even the wicked can sleep soundly if their minds are
25:21
clouded by arrogance, alcohol or total delusion.
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But David's rest was the peaceful, undisturbed state of a
25:27
well regulated mind. He found rest on no other ground
25:32
but because he was upheld by the strength of God and defended by
25:36
his help. I marvel at this, I really do.
25:38
I think about modern. Insomnia.
25:40
Oh, it's an epidemic. People today lose sleep over a
25:43
stressful e-mail from their boss.
25:45
We stare at the ceiling at 2:00 AM because of a looming meeting
25:48
or a minor financial worry or an awkward social interaction.
25:52
Our minds race through every worst case scenario.
25:55
We do that all the time. Our heart rates spike while we
25:57
are perfectly safe in our comfortable beds.
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Yet here is a man with an entire nation mobilized to execute him
26:03
and he manages to sleep soundly. He says I did the ordinary
26:07
actions of life without being disturbed by fear.
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It proves that the godly never fail, improving, victorious over
26:13
all their fears when they actually cast those fears on the
26:16
Lord, whereas the ungodly who do not rely upon God are
26:21
overwhelmed with despair even when they meet with the smallest
26:24
perils. That's such a good point.
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A wealthy man without faith will lie awake terrified of losing a
26:29
small percentage of his portfolio.
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A man with faith can sleep on the dirt while an army hunts
26:35
him. David enlarges upon the
26:37
incalculable efficacy of this confidence.
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All the godly have some understanding of this from their
26:43
experience of divine protection. Because God's might is infinite,
26:47
they conclude, it shall be invincible against all the
26:49
assaults, outrageous preparations and forces of the
26:52
whole. World I will not be afraid of 10
26:54
thousands of people. That is the conclusion.
26:56
Human courage will always fail unless we stop measuring divine
27:00
assistance by human metrics. We try to calculate the odds.
27:03
We look at 10,000 swords and one shield and we say the odds are
27:06
10,000 to 1. Which is terrible math in this
27:09
context. Exactly.
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We must learn, when in dangers, not to measure the assistance of
27:15
God after the manner of man, but to despise whatever terrors may
27:19
stand in our way. All the attempts which men may
27:21
make against God are of little or no account.
27:24
The infinite easily overrides the finite numbers of the enemy.
27:27
10,000 is a finite number. God's power, God's strength, is
27:32
infinite. Therefore, the math actually
27:34
heavily favors David. Which transitions us into the
27:37
final deliverance detailed in verses 7 and 8.
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Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for thou has smitten all
27:43
mine enemies upon the cheekbone that has broken the teeth of the
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ungodly. Notice how he goes right back to
27:49
petitioning God even after declaring his quiet state, Even
27:52
after having a great night's sleep, he wakes up and asks to
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be preserved. He doesn't assume that one good
27:58
night means the war is over. No, He desires the Lord to
28:00
preserve him in safety during the whole of his life.
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He's essentially saying, Lord, since thou has to overthrow my
28:06
enemies in the past, grant that this thy goodness may follow me
28:09
today. It is not uncommon for David to
28:12
mingle various affections in his prayers.
28:14
After making mention of his confidence, he returns to the
28:17
same prayers as at the beginning.
28:19
Because he was still in eminent peril, the threat was still
28:22
physically present. Then we get to the imagery of
28:25
the smitten cheekbone and the broken teeth.
28:27
It is violent, vivid imagery, striking a jaw, shattering
28:32
teeth. It paints a picture of a
28:34
predator being completely neutralized.
28:37
Like a lion that can't bite anymore.
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Precisely, there are two main ways to explain this.
28:42
First, it could be that in praying he calls to his
28:45
remembrance his former victories to fuel his present faith.
28:49
He is thinking about the lion and the bear he killed as a boy
28:52
or the Philistines he defeated as a young man.
28:54
OK, that makes. Sense second, having experienced
28:56
the assistance of God and obtain the answer to his prayers
28:59
regarding Absalom, perhaps writing this portion after the
29:02
rebellion was crushed, he now follows it up by Thanksgiving.
29:05
And the most consistent interpretation sides with the
29:07
latter, right? Yes, he declares that he fled to
29:10
God for help in dangers, humbly prayed for deliverance, and
29:14
after salvation had been granted, he gives thanks,
29:16
testifying that he acknowledged God to be the sole author of the
29:19
deliverance he had obtained. He doesn't credit his generals,
29:22
Joab or Abishai, he credits God. Which perfectly sets up the
29:27
theological climax of the entire Psalm in verse 8.
29:30
Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, or some translate it,
29:33
Salvation is of the Lord. By these words, David not only
29:37
claims the office and praise of saving for God alone, but he
29:40
tacitly opposes God's strength to all human sucker.
29:44
He completely strips away. Human assistance is the decisive
29:47
factor. Even if 1000 deaths hangover the
29:49
people that cannot render God unable to save them, it cannot
29:52
prevent Him from speedily sending forth, without any
29:54
effort the deliverance He is always able to impart.
29:57
Salvation is not a collaborative effort between human ingenuity
30:00
and divine backing. No, it's not a 5050 split.
30:03
It belongs entirely to the Lord. And notice how the scope
30:06
broadens at the very end of the text.
30:09
The Psalm shifts from David's individual preservation to a
30:12
corporate reality. Thy blessing is upon thy people.
30:17
The end of the Psalm asserts that this deliverance was
30:20
granted not so much to him as an individual as to the whole
30:23
people. The Universal Church.
30:25
You are entirely correct. The preservation of the
30:27
universal church at that time depended entirely on the safety
30:30
and prosperity of David's throne.
30:32
God's covenant was tied to the Davidic line.
30:35
The promise of the coming Messiah was tied to David's
30:38
survival. So the dispersion of this wicked
30:41
conspiracy, the defeat of Absalom, was not just about
30:44
saving one man's life or salvaging a political career.
30:47
Not at all. It was about the care God had
30:49
for the safety of His church across all of history.
30:52
The final take away is incredibly encouraging.
30:54
We learned that the Church shall always be delivered from the
30:57
calamities which befall her, because God, who is able to save
31:01
her, will never withdraw His grace and blessing from her.
31:04
The gates of hell will not prevail.
31:06
It connects the historical, literal deliverance of a king in
31:09
the wilderness to the perpetual guaranteed deliverance of the
31:13
people of God throughout history.
31:15
The affliction was real, the chastisement was severe, the
31:18
mockery was piercing, but the conclusion was absolute divine
31:22
victory. So what does this all mean for
31:24
us today? We have covered a massive amount
31:27
of theological and psychological ground.
31:29
We have watched a man deal with personal failure that resulted
31:32
in rigorous, devastating chastisement from heaven.
31:36
Yeah, a really tough situation. We saw him absorb intense,
31:39
targeted mockery that pierced his very soul, taunting him that
31:44
his math was bad and his God had abandoned.
31:46
Him, we saw him respond, not with sullen silence, not with
31:50
gnawing the bit, but with an active, defiant voice opposing
31:53
the outcries of the ungodly. With deliberate, out loud
31:56
prayer. We examine his careful approach
31:59
to proper worship, refusing to turn a sacred symbol into a
32:02
superstition, yet praying confidently toward the promises
32:05
it represented. And we witnessed the literal
32:07
physical rest he achieved laying down and sleeping while
32:11
surrounded by an army sustained entirely by an invisible
32:14
defense. It is a master class and relying
32:17
on divine promises when every earthly metric predicts your
32:21
ruin. I want to leave you with a final
32:24
thought to Mull over as you go about your day.
32:27
We all face situations where the familiar routines and support
32:30
structures of our lives are stripped away.
32:32
We all go through it. We find ourselves in our own
32:35
versions of the hiding places of the wilderness.
32:37
When that happens, when the odds are stacked against you, and
32:40
especially when the consequences of your own actions are staring
32:43
you in the face, how do you respond?
32:45
Do you find yourself anxiously calculating the statistical odds
32:48
of your survival? Do you let the voices of the
32:51
critics Pierce your soul and convince you that you are beyond
32:53
help? Or are you able to vocalize your
32:55
trust, lay down, and sleep, trusting entirely in an
32:58
invisible, infinite defense? Thank you for joining us for
33:01
this deep dive. We appreciate your time, and we
33:04
hope you continue to pursue this kind of analytical curiosity.
33:07
Until next time.